Courtesy  of  the  Pan  American  Union 

Palm  Avenue,  Rio  de  Janeiro^  Brazil 


LANDS  AND  PEOPLES  SERIES 


SOUTH  AMERICA 

A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


By  ISAIAH  BOWMAN 

Director  of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  formerly 
A  ssistant  Professor  of  Geography  in  Yale  University 


With  an  Introduction  to  the  Series  by  RICHARD  ELWOOD 

DODGE,  Professor  of  Geography,  Teachers  College, 

Columbia  University 


RAND   McNALLY  &  COMPANY 

Chicago  New  York 


•SERVATION 
>Y  ADDED 

SINALTOBE 
AWED 


EB  08  1993 


Copyright,  /y/5, 
By  ISAIAH  BOWMAN 


CAtcago 


THE  PREFACE 

South  America,  even  more  than  Africa,  has  for  years 
been  the  Dark  Continent  to  the  average  teacher.  Its 
geographic  literature  is  meager,  and  much  of  it  is  in  Span- 
ish, Portuguese,  and  German.  Where  can  the  teacher  go 
for  a  lively  description  of  the  long  desert  of  Atacama? 
Until  the  English  edition  of  Brazil  by  Pierre  Denis  was. 
published  (1911),  where  could  be  found  a  real  explanation 
of  the  geographic  provinces  of  that  country?  To-day 
the  best  work  on  the  Argentine  is  in  French;  and  the  best 
brief  description  of  the  high  plateaus  of  Bolivia  and  Peru 
is  in  German.  It  is  impossible  for  the  busy  teacher  in 
the  public  schools  to  gather  from  the  best  books,  even  if 
lists  of  them  were  available,  the  material  for  good  work 
on  the  geography  of  South  America. 

The  aim  of  this  little  book  is  to  put  into  convenient 
form  for  elementary  students  some  of  the  material  I  have 
gathered  during  the  past  ten  years  of  study  and  travel. 
It  is  not  a  handbook.  It  does  not  pretend  to  cover  all 
parts  of  the  continent  in  the  same  detail.  I  have  chosen 
those  subjects  that  appear  to  me  to  be  most  interesting 
or  most  important  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge  of 
South  America.  No  one  who  writes  a  book  worth  reading 
applies  a  foot  rule  to  his  subject.  I  conceive  that  an 
excellent  geography  of  any  continent  might  be  written  for 
children  which  dealt  only  with  houses  or  dress  or  villages 
or  roads.  No  one  carries,  or  indeed  could  carry,  into  his 
maturer  years  a  well-proportioned  knowledge  of  grammar- 
school  subjects.  That  some  knowledge  should  stick  and 
that  it  should  be  sound  and  important — these  are  the 
chief  considerations.  So  the  question  of  presentation  is, 

357,3)50 


vi  THE   PREFACE 

first,  the  determination  of  what  is  sound  and  valuable,  and 
—what  is  of  at  least  equal  importance — how  it  can  be 
presented  so  as  to  be  interesting. 

Endless  experiment  is  needed.  The  best  results  are 
not  easy  to  achieve.  Thus  new  books  are  appearing 
which  are  worth  while  if  they  present  new  facts  or  illus- 
trate better  methods.  Whether  the  method  followed  in 
the  pages  of  this  book  is  better  than  those  now  in  vogue, 
only  experience  will  tell.  Many  of  the  facts  I  have  gath- 
ered first-hand  in  the  course  of  various  scientific  expedi- 
tions to  Peru,  Bolivia,  Chile,  and  the  Argentine,  and  these 
will  have  at  least  some  interest  for  the  teacher,  if  not  for 
the  pupil. 

Most  of  the  illustrations  are  from  my  own  collections. 
Others  have  been  gathered  from  various  sources  acknowl- 
edged in  the  text.  I  wish  here  to  express  my  hearty 
thanks  for  the  help  received  in  this  form.  I  am  particu- 
larly indebted  to  Neville  B.  Craig  for  the  excellent  photo- 
graphs of  the  Madeira  River  region  in  the  chapter  on 

the  Amazon. 

ISAIAH  BOWMAN 
Yale  University 

December  10,  1914 


THE  INTRODUCTION 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  in  the  past  to  prepare 
supplementary  geography  readers  that  would  enable 
teachers  to  increase  the  emphasis  that  can  be  given  to 
the  picturesque  side  of  geography — that  is,  to  add  good, 
strong  side  lights  to  the  necessarily  brief  and  sometimes 
formal  presentation  of  the  more  comprehensive  text- 
books. Such  reading-matter  obviously  ought  to  be  as 
accurate,  authoritative,  and  systematic  as  the  material 
of  a  textbook,  and  must  be  presented  in  an  appealing 
and  readable  form.  Children  of  the  age  to  get  profit 
from  such  supplementary  work  are  attracted  by  a  volume 
that  tells  a  story  in  an  absorbing  and  enlightening  way, 
just  as  they  are  by  a  story  full  of  action.  In  either  case, 
the  book  that  causes  the  child  to  curl  up  in  a  corner  and 
lose  himself  in  his  reading  is  the  valuable  book,  provided 
its  contents  are  sound,  inspiring,  and  educative  in  the 
best  sense.  Children  want  to  have  faith  in  the  realness 
and  the  value  of  what  they  read  and  to  be  able  to  relate 
the  newly  acquired  material  to  the  more  familiar  matter 
gained  in  formal  study. 

The  editor  and  publishers  have  attempted  to  meet 
these  demands  in  the  series  of  supplementary  volumes, 
of  which  this  is  the  second  to  appear.  Each  author  who 
is  contributing  to  this  series  is  a  geographer  of  high 
repute,  an  authority  on  the  country  described,  whose 
accounts  are  accepted  as  standard  by  the  scientific  world. 
Each  one  writes  from  a  fullness  of  knowledge  of  the 
facts  depicted  and  with  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  way 
the  people  in  each  country  reflect  the  influence  of  the 


viii  THE   INTRODUCTION 

geographic  surroundings  in  their  habits  and  customs. 
The  editor  has  secured  the  services  of  the  several  authors, 
has  planned  the  larger  features  of  treatment,  and  has  edited 
the  manuscripts  from  a  common  viewpoint  so  as  to  secure 
a  certain  uniformity  of  plan  of  presentation,  but  he  has 
in  no  way  sacrificed  the  individuality  of  the  authors' 
work. 

Thus  the  series  will  be  a  collection  of  expert  treatises, 
written  for  a  special  purpose  and  from  a  common  view- 
point. It  will  not  be  a  compilation  of  the  work  of  others 
or  a  series  of  travelers'  notes  especially  prepared  to  amuse. 
It  will  be  a  standard  treatment  of  the  world  by  regions, 
from  the  modern  standpoint  that  geography  is  a  study 
of  the  earth  in  its  relation  to  man  and  life  and  that  the 
most  interesting  topics  in  geography  deal  with  the  lives 
of  peoples  and  the  reasons  for  their  habits,  customs, 
industries,  and  distribution. 

RICHARD  ELWOOD  DODGE 

Teachers  College 
Columbia  University 
New  York  City 


THE   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Preface v 

The  Introduction vii 

A  List  of  the  Map  Plates x 

CHAPTER 

I.     PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED    .        .        .       i 
II.     THE  SOUTHERNMOST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD       .  14 

III.  PATAGONIA,  THE  "No  MAN'S  LAND"  OF  THE  OLD 

GEOGRAPHIES 21 

IV.  THE  ARGENTINE 35 

V.     THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE       .       .       .       .73 

VI.  THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU  .       .     84 

VII.  THE  HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU  .    128 

VIII.     THE  INCA  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE 161 

IX.  THE  PLAINS  AND  INDIANS  OF  EL  GRAN  CHACO  .       .176 

X.     PARAGUAY 185 

XL  URUGUAY:    THE    SMALLEST    COUNTRY    IN    SOUTH 

AMERICA -  192 

XII.  BRAZIL:    THE  COUNTRY  OF  MANY  INTERESTS  .       .   199 

XIII.  AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  GREAT  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS  .  237 

XIV.  ECUADOR:     LAND  OF  VOLCANOES         ....  270 
XV.  LOWLAND  AND  HIGHLAND  PEOPLES  OF  COLOMBIA  .   294 

XVI.     THE  MOUNTAINS  AND  LLANOS  OF  VENEZUELA  .       .  314 
XVII.     THE    GUIANAS:    THE    ONLY   EUROPEAN    COLONIES 

IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 342 

The  Index  ...  .   xiii 


IX 


A  LIST  OF  THE  MAP  PLATES 

PAGE 

Mean  annual  rainfall facing       8 

A  political  map  of  South  America between  8  and      9 

Mild  belts facing       9 

Southern  South  America facing    35 

Mean  January  temperature facing  124 

Mean  July  temperature facing  125 

Mean  January  rainfall facing  202 

A  relief  map  of  South  America between  202  and  203 

Mean  July  rainfall facing  203 

Density  of  population facing  316 

A  vegetation  map  of  South  America between  316  and  317 

Races  of  man facing  317 


Quichua  Indians  and  donkey  loaded  with  wheat  straw,  Cuzco,  Peru. 

Also  portion  of  the  famous  palace  formerly  used 

by  the  Inca  rulers 


SOUTH  AMERICA: 
A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

CHAPTER  I 
PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED 

The  "Conquistadores"  or  Conquerors.     In  one  of  the 

stories  of  The  Arabian  Nights  Sindbad  of  the  Sea  landed 
at  the  "City  of  Apes,"  so  called  because  the  tall  coconut 
trees  along  the  shore  and  the  caves  in  the  mountains 
were  inhabited  by  great  numbers  of  these  terrifying 
beasts.  The  houses  of  the  city  were  built  overlooking 
the  water  with  doors  that  opened  to  the  sea,  and  every 
evening  for  fear  of  the  apes  the  people  embarked  in 
boats  to  return  at  daylight.  If  a  man  stayed  behind 
for  the  night  the  apes  came  down  from  the  trees  and  the 
mountains,  entered  his  house,  and  killed  him.  During  the 
day  the  apes  threw  coconuts  at  the  people,  and  these 
were  carefully  gathered  both  for  food  and  to  exchange  for 
merchandise  brought  in  ships  from  other  lands. 

Like  all  the  other  stories  in  The  Arabian  Nights,  the 
story  of  the  City  of  Apes  was  told  merely  to  entertain 
people,  though  at  the  same  time  it  taught  them  that 
there  were  such  things  in  the  world  as  apes,  and  coco- 
nuts, and  trade.  « 

More  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  a  number 
of  books  on  geography  were  written  full  of  equally  won- 
derful tales  of  strange  lands  and  people,  all  supposed  to 
be  true.  Indeed,  these  tales  were  read  even  by  grown 
people  with  very  much  the  same  interest  that  children  now 
read  fairy  stories.  Each  chapter  ended  with  an  account 


-SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

of  the  ' '  rarities  "  or  ' '  curiosities ' '  of  some  country,  in  which 
were  told  the  wildest  tales  that  travelers  could  invent. 
The  people  of  Russia  were  said  to  wear  clothes  made 
from  the  woolly  skin  of  a  melon;  the  Amazon  Basin  was 
inhabited  by  a  race  of  women  of  great  size  whose  heads 
were  placed  not  above  their  shoulders  but  between 
them;  and  in  other  parts  of  South  America  there  lived 
beasts  having  the  body  of  a  man,  the  head  of  a  lion,  and 
the  face  of  an  ape.  One  of  the  most  incredible  "  wonders ' ' 
in  these  books  was  that  of  El  Dorado,  a  tale  that  was 
believed  for  several  hundred  years  after  the  discovery 
of  America,  and  on  account  of  which  men  actually  left  their 
homes  by  thousands  to  fight  under  foreign  skies. 

There  are  many  contradictory  accounts  of  the  beginning 
of  the  story  of  El  Dorado.  Perhaps  the  most  reliable 
among  these  is  one  which  relates  that  the  story  was  first 
brought  to  the  Spanish  conquerors  by  an  Indian  in  Ecua- 
dor. Knowing  that  love  for  gold  was  the  ruling  passion 
of  the  Spaniards,  he  told  them  that  in  the  remote  interior 
there  was  said  to  be  a  "  Man  of  Gold."  About  the  Indian 
who  brought  the  tale  the  Spanish  soldiers  came  crowding 
and  questioning.  "Was  the  place  at  a  great  distance?" 
"How  could  one  get  there? "  "Would  he  show  them  the 
way?"  No  one  thought  to  ask,  "Is  the  tale  true?" 
because  those  were  the  days  of  marvelous  discoveries  and 
bold  adventures.  Not  only  were  men  having  amazing 
experiences  —  they  were  always  expecting  greater  marvels 
than  any  that  had  come  to  pass  and  were  eager  to  believe 
the  wildest  fancies.  So  when  they  heard  of  El  Dorado 
their  imaginations  played  with  the  story  until  they 
thought  the  Indian  had  told  them  that  El  Dorado  was 
a  great  city  filled  with  gold  palaces,  and  that  it  was 
inhabited  by  men  and  women  dressed  in  gold  cloth,  and, 
with  gold  spoons,  eating  food  cooked  in  golden  kettles. 


PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED  .     3 

Though  the  story  was  not  true  it  was  long  believed, 
like  similar  stories  about  the  fountain  of  youth  and 
King  Solomon's  mines,  and  the  belief  drew  thousands  of 
adventurers  into  the  wilderness  in  search  of  sudden 
wealth.  The  explorers  and  the  conquerors  of  that  period 
traveled  up  and  down  many  rivers,  crossed  lofty  moun- 
tains, and  upon  their  return  published  maps  and  notes 
which  for  a  long  time  furnished  people  with  the  only 
information  they  could  get  about  the  great  interior  of 
South  America.  Perhaps  without  the  story  of  El  Dorado 
and  the  search  for  it  the  first  explorations  of  the  vast 
interior  of  the  Amazon  Basin  might  have  been  delayed  for 
a  hundred  years.  In  the  footsteps  of  the  explorers,  and 
sometimes  even  in  their  company,  went  missionaries  of 
the  church,  baptizing  the  natives,  christening  the  children, 
and  erecting  missions  where  they  might  teach  the  Indians 
"for  the  glory  of  the  cross." 

The  True  El  Dorado.  With  the  "conquistadores" 
and  the  missionaries,  and  in  greater  numbers  after  them, 
came  farmers  and  herdsmen,  whose  object  was  not  to 
search  for  gold  or  silver  but  to  make  homes  in  a  new 
country.  Some  of  them,  sailing  south  from  Panama, 
settled  in  the  rich  valleys  of  Peru,  others  settled  in  central 
Chile  and  on  the  shores  of  the  La  Plata  estuary,  and 
there  were  some  for  whom  the  unknown  Andes  offered 
no  terrors  and  who  founded  trading  posts  and  homes 
in  the  remotest  mountain  valleys  and  even  in  the  forests 
of  the  great  Amazon  lowland.  While  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  newcomers  were  men,  there  were  also  a  few 
women  and  children  who  faced  dangers  and  hardships 
that  appalled  the  strongest.  These  people  were  the 
real  conquerors  of  South  America.  On  the  pampas  of 
the  Argentine,  the  plains  and  valleys  of  Venezuela,  and 
in  the  mountain  basins  and  valleys  of  Peru  and  Chile 


4      .   SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

they  discovered  an  El  Dorado  far  richer  than  any  of 
which  the  early  explorers  had  dreamed,  for  the  soil  is 


FIG.  T.     Fertile  irrigated  garden  farms  near  Lima,  Peru. 

Almost  every  foot  of  ground  is  used.     The  water  is 

obtained  from  the  Rimac  River 

the  enduring  wealth  of  the  land  (Figs,  i  and  2).  Little 
did  they  think  that  their  descendants  would  live  to  see  new 
nations  arise,  great  herds  feeding  upon  once  empty  grass- 
lands, and  the  crowded  peoples  of  western  Europe  depend- 
ent for  at  least  a  part  of  their  food  supply  upon  the  grain 
fields  and  pastures  that  their  explorations  had  made 
known. 

The  Wars  of  Emancipation.  For  '  several  hundred 
years  the  settlers  remained  loyal  to  the  monarchs  of 
Spain,  paying  taxes  and  on  the  whole  obeying  the  laws, 
whether  these  were  good  or  bad.  When  so-called  Spanish 
rule  came  to  be  recognized  as  misrule,  and  the  laws  and 
taxes  of  Spain  became  too  irksome,  the  settlers  began 
what  are  known  as  the  "Wars  of  Emancipation."  Each 


PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED         5 

group  of  settlers  had  its  own  particular  grievance  against 
Spain,  and  each  was  separated  from  its  neighbors  by 
miles  of  wild,  unsettled  country.  The  settlements  about 
Caracas  and  the  seaport  La  Guaira  joined  with  those  at 
Valencia,  and,  after  a  long,  heroic  campaign,  defeated  the 
armies  of  Spain  and  founded  the  republic  of  Venezuela. 
About  the  same  time  there  was  fighting  in  Peru  and  in 
Chile;  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  the 
settlers  were  planning  the  overthrow  of  Spain  and  the 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood 

FIG.  2.     Picking  cotton  with  Chinese  labor  on  irrigated  land 

in  a  fertile  valley  at  the  foot  of  the  A  ndes, 

Uitarte,  Peru 


6          SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

establishment  of  a  confederation  that  has  since  grown  to 
be  the  Argentine  Republic.  Gradually  each  group  became 
independent,  and  republics  were  formed  with  governments 
modeled  after  that  of  the  United  States. 

The  Character  of  the  People.  Although  the  white 
people  of  South  America  are  for  the  most  part  descendants 
of  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  they  are  by  no  means  alike 
in  character.  Some  are  children  of  the  wide  pampas  or 
grasslands  of  the  Argentine;  others  live  a  secluded  life  in 
the  mountain  fastnesses  of  the  Andes;  in  the  rubber 
forests  of  the  wet  Amazon  lowlands  are  isolated  settle- 
ments rarely  visited  by  white  men  even  to-day;  while  in 
the  smiling  valleys  of  central  Chile,  where  the  climate  is 
temperate,  there  live  the  energetic  Chileans. 

The  differences  between  these  various  groups  of  people 
in  many  ways  remind  us  strikingly  of  similar  differences 
among  plants  and  animals  and  suggest  that  people,  like 
plants  and  animals,  are  to  some  extent  what  their  surround- 
ings make  them.  On  the  wet  Orinoco  lowlands,  when  the 
river  floods  the  country  for  miles  the  people  have  to  live  in 
the  second  stories  of  their  houses,  or  in  the  trees  like  some 
species  of  frogs.  The  bronzed  and  weather-beaten  faces  of 
the  desert  people  remind  us  of  the  cactus  with  its  thorns 
and  hard  exterior;  the  tempests  of  the  pampas  and  the 
fleet  guanaco  are  scarcely  more  wild  than  the  gauchos, 
a  class  of  men  in  some  respects  like  the  picturesque  cow- 
boys of  our  western  plains. 

Just  as  we  can  tell  a  Scotchman  from  an  Irishman  or 
a  Persian  from  an  Armenian,  so  we  can  tell  a  Peruvian 
from  a  Chilean  or  a  Colombian  from  a  Brazilian.  Not 
only  are  there  differences  of  speech  from  place  to  place 
but  also  slightly  different  customs  which  appear  to 
have  grown  out  of  the  kind  of  place  in  which  the  people 
have  settled  as  well  as  the  province  in  Spain  or  Portugal 


PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED        7 

from  which  they  came.  With  the  growth  of  separate  re- 
publics each  with  its  national  spirit  these  differences  have 
become  greater.  The  native  of  Valparaiso  no  longer  says 
with  the  man  from  Quito  or  Lima,  "I  am  a  Spaniard," 
but  "I  am  a  Chilean."  Men  who  herd  cattle  are  likely 
to  be  different  from  men  who  hoe  gardens  or  gather  rubber 
on  great  rivers.  In  some  countries  real  statesmen  have 
been  developed,  in  others  the  government  has  been  run 
by  coarse  politicians  who  have  robbed  the  people;  one 
country  has  enjoyed  a  stable  government  because  the 
people  are  proud  of  their  flag  and  teach  their  children 
loyalty  to  rulers;  another  country  has  on  the  average  a 
new  revolution  every  eighteen  months! 

To  one  who  has  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  a  shepherd's 
hut  in  the  mountains,  or  lived  for  weeks  in  the  saddle 
riding  through  the  grassy  plains  of  the  Argentine,  or 
walked  for  days  in  and  out  of  the  houses  of  the  coffee 
pickers  in  the  state  of  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil,  even  the  smaller 
differences  among  the  people  of  South  America  appear 
as  interesting  as  the  larger  differences  that  give  each 
nation  distinction. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  race  to  which  we  belong  is  known  in 
the  world  for  its  force  of  character,  its  habit  of  speaking 
directly  to  the  point,  and,  to  some,  for  its  lack  of  polite 
manners.  The  Latin  peoples — among  them  the  Italians 
and  the  Spaniards — think  Anglo-Saxons  are  rather  rude 
and  are  inclined  to  boast  that  even  if  Latin  peoples  are 
not  so  successful  in  making  vast  sums  of  money  they  are 
at  least  polite  in  making  a  little  money. 

A  man  from  Boston  once  visited  a  schoolroom  in  Spain 
and  heard  the  teacher  tell  the  children  that  Americans 
are  very  cruel.  "Just  think,"  she  said,  "American  boys 
have  been  known  to  fight  with  their  fists,  like  animals, 
until  their  noses  became  bloody."  Upon  his  return  the 


8          SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

traveler  happened  to  step  into  a  schoolroom  in  Boston 
and  there  heard  a  teacher  say:  "The  Spaniards  are 
a  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  people.  Every  Sunday  they 
gather  around  a  great  arena  and  watch  bullfights  at  which 
bulls  are  cruelly  killed,  horses  gored,  and  men  trampled 
by  infuriated  beasts."  The  Spaniards  are  no  more 
cruel  than  we,  some  of  them  are  much  more  courteous % 
and  many  of  them  are  also  very  energetic  and  successful. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  well  if  each  race  gained  the  best 
qualities  of  the  other.  It  certainly  would  do  no  one 
harm  to  be  as  polite  as  a  Spaniard. 

The  stranger  is  everywhere  made  to  feel  at  home  by 
the  charming  phrase,  "Please  consider  my  house  your 
own,"  whether  the  host  lives  in  a  hut  or  a  palace.  From 
those  who  live  in  the  larger  cities  the  phrase  carries 
good  will  rather  than  a  real  invitation  to  move  your 
baggage  into  the  best  room.  From  the  owner  of  a  rich 
hacienda  (plantation)  or  from  the  humble  shepherd  it 
carries  a  literal  meaning.  A  traveler  once  stopped  at 
a  Bolivian  hut  on  the  edge  of  the  Amazon  Basin.  He 
had  .come  from  the  cool  highlands  in  a  single  day  and 
was  too  tired  to  do  more  than  eat  some  soup  and  fried 
yuca  and  to  accept  the  .owner's  invitation  to  sleep  in 
the  dining  room,  an  invitation  which  ended  with  the 
usual  phrase — "because  it  is  your  house,  you  know." 
But  the  close  air  of  the  stuffy  little  room,  the  pest  of 
flies  and  mosquitoes,  and  the  cackling  of  the  startled 
hens  roosting  over  the  table  on  which  the  traveler  had 
spread  his  bed,  made  sleep  impossible;  so  the  next  day 
he  pitched  his  tent  near  the  bank  of  a  river  some  distance 
from  the  hut.  At  this  the  owner  was  very  angry.  It 
appeared  to  him  as  if  his  invitation  had  been  scorned, 
and  only  after  long  explanation  could  he  be  made  to  see 
that  the  soft  sand  bar,  covered  with  driftwood  and  well 


agellan 

A    DEL   FUEOO 
Horn  Gn°Lon«.  We* 


PLATE  I.     Mean  annual  rainfall 


\  TROP.C    Or_CAMOER      T_  JL         *"  *'"  ^'"/^^  **« 

•    CiffW  ie/i    — —  //da^  equator 


PLATE  III.    JlfiW 


PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED         9 

supplied  with  fresh  water,  was  an  ideal  camp  site  for 
people  accustomed  to  sleep  in  the  open.  To  offer  to  pay 
a  hacendado  for  a  night's  lodging  is  to  break  a  friendship 
which  on  his  part  began  when  he  invited  you  to  rest 
yourself  and  your  beasts  under  his  roof. 

Harbors  and  Products.  The  countries  of  South  Amer- 
ica for  the  most  part  enjoy  easy  access  to  the  long  coast 
and  to  the  world's  trade  routes.  A  position  in  the 
remote  interior  would  mean  a  degree  of  isolation  that 
would  prevent  growth  because  products  would  have 
to  be  shipped  down  long  winding  rivers  or  across  lofty 
mountains.  Only  Paraguay  and  Bolivia  are  without  a 
seacoast,  though  Paraguay  has  a  river  channel  which 
brings  steamers  to  the  gates  of  the  country.  Bolivia, 
on  the  other  hand,  depends  upon  railways  across  Chile 
and  Peru,  having  lost  all  of  her  maritime  territory  to 
Chile  during  the  war  of  1879-1883. 

Like  so  many  other  conditions  in  South  America, 
this  is  not  well  known  to  many  of  the  people  of  other 
continents.  Some  years  ago  a  European  nation  had 
trouble  with  Bolivia  and  one  of  the  European  statesmen 
is  said  to  have  remarked  that  if  Bolivia  did  not  come  to 
terms  it  would  be  necessary  to  send  a  battleship  over 
to  South  America  and  bombard  La  Paz,  the  capital  of 
Bolivia.  In  order  to  bombard  the  city  the  guns  of  that 
battleship  would  have  had  to  shoot  about  four  hundred 
miles!  Of  course  the  statesman  felt  very  much  ashamed 
when  he  was  told  that  La  Paz  was  so  far  from  the  sea, 
and  we  may  be  sure  that  before  he  talked  any  more  about 
Bolivia  he  opened  an  atlas  and  studied  the  geography  of 
South  America. 

Since  nearly  all  the  countries  of  South  America  border 
the  sea,  a  trip  around  the  continent  gives  the  traveler 
some  idea  of  the  various  people  and  their  products. 


io        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Along  the  coast  are  the  important  harbors  which  serve 
as  gateways  to  the  great  interior  spaces.  At  Para  is 
the  rubber  hunter ;  the  man  who  gathers  turtles'  eggs 
for  a  living ;  the  German  merchant  who  trades  manufac- 
tured goods  for  crude  rubber.  At  Bahia  the  warehouses 
contain  cacao,  tobacco,  and  sugar.  At  Santos  the  air  is 
loaded  with  the  odor  of  coffee,  and  ships  from  all  the 
coffee-drinking  countries  of  the  world  crowd  the  docks. 
The  grain  boats  that  come  down  the  Parana  from  Rosario, 
as  well  as  the  steamers  at  the  docks  of  Buenos  Aires,  tell 


FIG.  3.    A  railway  line  up  the  face  of  the  steep  three-thousand- 
foot  bluff  at  Caleta  Buena,  northern  Chile.    Nitrate 
of  soda  is  the  chief  export 


PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED       n 

us  of  the  extensive  farms  and  ranches  and  the  wide 
spaces  of  the  pampas  of  the  Argentine,  while  the  boats 
from  the  southern 
coast  carry  great 
cargoes  of  wool 
brought  to  Gal- 
legos  and  Porto 
Madryn  by  the 
lonely  sheep  herd- 
ers of  the  bleak 
gravel  plains  of 
Patagonia. 

Nowhere  else 
in  South  America 
is  there  a  coast  so 
peculiar  as  that 
in  northern  Chile, 
where  the  steep 
cliffs  rising  sever-  FIG-  4-  The  rough  surface  of  a  salt  plain  in 
al  thousand  feet 

above  the  sea  are  bare  from  top  to  bottom  and  seem 
to  lead  up  to  a  desert  quite  unfit  for  man  (Fig.  3). 
But  beyond  those  great  cliffs  is  a  pampa,  or  plain,  which 
contains  nitrate,  a  substance  so  valuable  and  so  rare 
that  ships  from  almost  every  country  in  the  world  lie 
in  near-by  ports  to  receive  cargoes  of  it.  This  nitrate  is 
to  be  used  in  fertilizers,  gunpowder,  and  other  chemicals 
in  both  Europe  and  North  America  (Fig.  4).  The 
cotton  and  sugar  of  Peru  (Figs,  i  and  2)  are  carried  to 
northern  countries  in  large  quantities,  and  in  Ecuador 
there  are  produced  every  year  thousands  of  pounds  of 
cacao,  from  which  some  of  our  chocolate  and  cocoa  is 
made  (Fig.  5). 

When  a  man  buys  a  rubber  coat  he  is  buying  in  part  the 


12 


SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


labor  of  a  savage  who  gathered  sap  from  a  rubber  tree, 
smoked  it  over  a  fire  of  palm  nuts,  and  carried  it  down- 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood 

FIG.  5.     Gathering  cacao  pods  from  which  the  chocolate  and 

cocoa  of  commerce  are  produced,  La  Clementine 

plantation,  Ecuador 

stream  in  a  dugout  canoe;  when  we  drink  coffee  we  are 
drinking  a  product  of  the  red  soil  and  brilliant  sunshine 
of  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil;  the  shoes  on  our  feet  may  have 
been  made  from  the  hide  of  an  Argentine  steer;  the  big 
guns  of  our  battleships,  as  well  as  the  firecrackers  used 
in  our  celebrations,  may  be  charged  with  powder  contain- 
ing nitrate  from  Chile;  and  the  chocolate  for  the  frosting 


PEOPLE  AND  THE  LAND  THEY  CONQUERED  ,13 

on  our  cake  once  grew  as  the  seed  of  the  cacao  tree  in 
cucumber-shaped  pods  and  was  gathered  and  dried  by 
some  swarthy,  barefooted  native  in  "the  land  of  the 
Equator." 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  SOUTHERNMOST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD 

The  Home  of  the  Yaghan  Indians.  At  the  extreme 
end  of  the  group  of  islands  that  fringe  the  southern 
end  of  South  America  live  the  Yaghan  Indians,  the 
remnants  of  a  folk  in  many  respects  unique  among  the 
savage  people  of  the  earth.  Some  idea  of  the  kind  of 
place  which  they  inhabit  may  be  gained  from  the  map 
(Plate  IV),  which  shows  that  the  Yaghans  live  in  latitude 
fifty-five  degrees  to  fifty-six  degrees  south,  or  about  as  far 
south  of  the  equator  as  Sitka,  Alaska,  is  north. 

Like  the  Eskimo,  the  Yaghan  is  a  child  of  nature.  His 
life  is  a  constant  fight  for  food,  of  which  there  is  little 
enough  in  a  land  so  wet  and  cold.  Like  the  "  roaring 
forties,"  this  is  a  region  where  the  west  winds  sweep  over 
land  and  sea.  Steep  mountains  rise  abruptly  from  the 
water's  edge,  and  about  their  peaks  storm  clouds  hover 
almost  constantly.  At  least  three  hundred  days  of 
the  year  are  cloudy.  A  dull  sky,  rain-swept  mountain 
sides,  the  wind  a  gale,  the  sea  beating  the  shores  of  the 
outer  islands  furiously,  snow-  and  ice-crowned  mountain 
tops, — these  are  almost  constant  elements  of  the  scenery 
in  this  land  of  the  southernmost  people  in  the  world. 

The  great  naturalist,  Darwin,  as  a  young  man  made  a 
very  important  study  of  the  region  and  wrote  the  first 
clear  description  of  the  people.  The  following  quotation 
is  from  his  well-known  book,  The  Voyage  of  the  Beagle. 

"  The  lofty  mountains  boldly  rise  to  a  height  of  between 
three  and  four  thousand  feet.  They  are  covered  by  a 
wide  mantle  of  perpetual  snow,  and  numerous  cascades 
pour  their  waters  through  the  woods,  into  the  narrow 

14 


THE  SOUTHERNMOST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD    15 

channel  below.  In  many  parts,  magnificent  glaciers 
extend  from  the  mountain  side  to  the  water's  edge.  It 
is  scarcely  possible  to  imagine  anything  more  beautiful 
than  the  beryl-like  blue  of  these  glaciers,  and  especially 
as  contrasted  with  the  dead  white  of  the  upper  expanse 
of  snow.  The  fragments  which  had  fallen  from  the  glacier 
into  the  water  were  floating  away,  and  the  channel 
(Beagle  Channel)  with  its  icebergs  presented,  for  the 
space  of  a  mile,  a  miniature  likeness  of  the  Polar  Sea." 

The  Yaghans  are  among  the  most  primitive  people  on 
the  earth  to-day.  The  leisure  and  wealth  that  many  of 
the  people  of  the  temperate  zones  possess  is  here  unknown. 
The  food  supply  in  any  particular  place  is  small,  hence 
the  number  of  people  found  in  any  one  place  is  small. 
From  twenty  to  thirty  men  and  women  may  live  together 
as  a  clan,  sharing  in  common  the  food  supply  and  the 
danger  of  securing  it.  The  entire  energy  of  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  is  spent  in  getting  food,  and  this  is 
usually  of  the  poorest  kind.  If  the  members  of  a  group 
are  not  actually  engaged  in  gathering  clams,  seals,  and 
fish — their  principal  diet — they  are  searching  every  cove 
for  a  favorable  place  in  which  food  may  be  found.  Often 
a  single  family  of  three  or  four — mother,  father,  and  chil- 
dren— live  apart  from  the  rest  in  an  isolation  that  appears 
to  us  both  strange  and  fearful.  The  necessity  for  assist- 
ance in  case  of  accident,  of  protection  against  an  enemy, 
and  the  getting  of  food,  is  so  great  that  life  is  more  tolerable 
when  a  few  families  live  together  as  a  group  and  have 
a  certain  amount  of  assistance  from  each  other  in  time 
of  need. 

Sea  Food  and  Canoe  Fires.  Instead  of  our  comfortable 
houses  they  have  only  the  roughest  shelter  of  bark  and 
twigs  such  as  an  animal  might  find  at  nightfall ;  instead  of 
having  a  fixed  home  they  move  frequently  and  abandon 


1 6        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

one  place  as  soon  as  a  better  food  supply  can  be  found 
in  another;  although  they  live  in  a  very  bleak  and  cheer- 
less land  their  clothing  is  only  a  piece  of  sealskin  which 
but  partly  covers  the  body  and  is  shifted  from  one  side 
to  the  other  to  correspond  with  the  direction  of  the  wind ! 

A  regular  food  supply  from  meal  to  meal  and  from 
week  to  week  is  to  them  unknown.  If  a  dead  whale  is 
washed  ashore  there  is  a  feast;  such  also  is  the  case  if  an 
exceptionally  good  bank  of  shells  is  found  upon  some 
little-visited  beach.  But  it  often  happens  that  a  storm 
arises  and  lasts  for  days,  confining  the  canoes  to  the 
land.  Then  if  there  is  no  food  accumulated,  and  if 
the  storm  is  severe  enough,  the  group  may  be  reduced 
to  actual  starvation. 

Travel  by  land  is  so  difficult  that  it  is  rarely  under- 
taken. Furthermore,  these  people  are  children  of  the  sea 
rather  than  of  the  land.  They  are  as  much  at  home  in  a 
canoe  as  they  are  when  walking  on  the  shore.  So  little 
attached  does  it  become  to  any  particular  home  place, 
that  when  an  Indian  family  goes  out  on  a  voyage  it  car- 
ries along  its  fire,  kept  burning  upon  some  earth  in  the 
bottom  of  the  canoe,  thus  assuring  means  for  warmth 
and  cooking  when  the  next  landing  is  made. 

The  Onas  of  Tierra  del  Fuego.  Upon  Tierra  del 
Fuego  are  the  Onas,  a  primitive  group  of  people  who 
still  lead  a  savage  life  such  as  their  fathers  led.  Once  their 
homes  were  scattered  over  the  whole  island,  but  since 
the  coming  of  the  European  settlers,  more  than  thirty 
years  ago,  they  have  been  driven  from  the  plains  and 
are  found  only  in  the  mountains  of  the  south.  The 
lowlands  are  now  almost  completely  occupied  by  the 
sheep  ranches  of  the  white  people. 

Before  the  whites  came,  the  Onas  depended  chiefly 
upon  the  guanaco  for  food  and  clothing.  Like  its  cousin 


THE  SOUTHERNMOST   PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD    17 

the  llama  (Fig.  74),  the  guanaco  appears  to  be  half  sheep, 
half  camel,  is  very  swift,  and  yields  a  warm,  soft  skin 
much  used  for  clothing.  But  with  increase  in  settlers 
the  guanaco  became  very  scarce.  The  Onas  called  the 
sheep  of  the  settlers  "white  guanaco,"  and  found  them 
easier  to  catch  and  their  flesh  tenderer  and  sweeter  than 
that  of  the  wild  animals  which  had  formerly  been  their 
main  source  of  food.  The  guanaco  became  so  scarce 
that  the  Onas,  probably  without  thought  of  wrong, 
began  to  kill  and  eat  the  sheep  that  grazed  on  the  land 
from  which  they  had  been  driven.  So  many  sheep  were 
thus  taken  that  the  whites  finally  began  a  cruel  war 
against  the  Onas,  in  some  cases  hiring  men  to  kill  them 
at  sight.  Some  of  them  were  captured  and  shipped  to 
Dawson  Island  (latitude  54°  S.),  where  tuberculosis  has 
swept  off  most  of  those  that  were  spared  from  the  bullet. 
Even  the  blubber  of  the  whale  stranded  upon  the  shores 
is  said  to  have  been  poisoned  so  that  those  Indians  who 
depended  upon  it  for  food  would  be  killed. 

The  Mountain  Refuge  of  the  Onas.  Were  Tierra  del 
Fuego  composed  wholly  of  plain  doubtless  the  Onas  would 
have  been  entirely  destroyed  by  this  time.  But  the 
southern  part  is  mountainous  and  stormy  and  covered 
in  part  with  dense  forests.  It  is  not  the  kind  of  country 
desired  by  the  sheep  farmer  or  ranchman,  and  here  the 
Onas  have  made  their  last  stand. 

The  lower  mountain  slopes  of  southern  Tierra  del  Fuego 
are  covered  with  evergreen  beech  trees  and  various 
shrubs.  About  two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  the 
forests  thin  out  and  so  bush-like  do  the  trees  become 
that  one  can  step  over  them.  In  many  places  on  the 
lower  lands  the  growth  is  so  rank  that  one  cannot  make 
headway  except  by  cutting  a  path  with  an  ax.  From 
the  twisted  trunks  hang  long  festoons  of  mosses  and 


i8       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

lichens  and  the  sweet  fungus  which  resembles  mucilage 
and  is  eaten  by  the  Indians.     Soft  mosses,   carpeting 


FIG.  6.    Part  of  the  town  of  Punta  Arenas,  Strait  of  Magellan 

the  ground,  hold  the  water  at  the  surface  and  turn  part^ 
of  it  into  impassable  bog. 

"Among  the  mosses,  and  along  the  wood  edges,  delicate 
ferns,  yellow  violets,  orchids,  cranberries,  compositae, 
and  other  plants  are  found.  But  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  shrubs  in  the  world  is  a  flaming  red  honeysuckle- 
like  plant.  .  .  .  As  one  cruises  about  the  channels  its 
flowers  paint  on  the  hillsides  broad  patches  of  beauti- 
ful red  against  its  darker  background  of  sombre  green. 
The  flowers  here  have  practically  no  odor,  but  on  bright 
sunny  days,  which  sometimes  do  occur  in  this  weird, 
sombre  land,  make  the  wood  edges  and  grass  lands  quite 
gay  in  midsummer  (December  2 1 st) . ' '  (Furlong.) 

The  Southernmost  City  in  the  World.  On  the  north- 
ern shore  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan  is  Punta  Arenas,  a 
city  of  fifteen  thousand  people,  which  has  the  distinction 
of  being  the  southernmost  town  in  the  world  (Fig.  6). 
Unlike  Africa  and  Australia,  South  America  extends  well 


THE  SOUTHERNMOST  PEOPLE  IN  THE  WORLD     19 

toward  the  Antarctic  Circle.  Cape  Town  in  South  Africa 
is  only  as  far  south  of  the  equator  as  New  Orleans  is  fiorth ; 
but  Punta  Arenas  is  as  far  south  of  the  equator  as  Sitka, 
Alaska,  is  north  of  it.  A  map  of  the  ocean  trade  routes 
of  South  America  shows  how  important  is  the  position 
of  this  unique  town  (Plate  II).  It  is  on  the  only  water 
route  through  the  southern  Andes.  Boats  from  Europe, 
Africa,  or  the  east  coast  of  North  America  desiring  to 
make  the  west  coast  of  South  America  have  a  choice  of 
two  routes :  either  the  exposed  and  stormy  route  around 
Cape  Horn,  where  one  vessel  in  ten  is  lost  or  disabled, 
or  the  quieter  and  shorter  route  through  the  Strait  of 
Magellan  past  Punta  Arenas. 

The  strait  is  so  narrow,  however  (in  one  place  it  is 
only  a  mile  between  the  lofty  shores) ,  that  sailing  vessels 
find  it  very  difficult  to  pass  except  with  the  most  favorable 
wind  and  sea.  Punta  Arenas  is  therefore  a  great  repair 
and  coaling  station  for  steamships  on  the  southern 
routes,  as.  Stanley  on  the  Falkland  Islands  (Plate  IV), 
.several  hundred  miles  east  of  the  strait,  is  the  great 
repair  and  supply  station  for  sailing  vessels.  Fleets  of 
steamers  anchor  in  the  port  of  Punta  Arenas.  Some  of 
them  receive  coal  for  the  long  voyages  between  Europe 
and  the  west  coast  of  South  America.  In  addition, 
some  of  them  receive  the  products  of  the  country — the 
sheep,  hides,  tallow,  and  wool  of  the  region  north  of 
the  port. 

Punta  Arenas  itself  is  a  revelation  to  one  expecting 
to  see  frontier  conditions.  It  has  electric  lights,  a  few 
well-paved  streets,  a  newspaper,  and  good  telephone  and 
cable  service.  The  name  of  the  town  is  the  Spanish  for 
sandy  point  (Punta  =  point ;  Arena  =  sand) . 

The  prosperity  of  Punta  Arenas  depends  largely  upon 
the  pastures  north  of  the  strait.  East  of  the  Andes 


20       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Mountains  and  extending  northward  for  five  hundred 
miles  is  a  narrow  belt  of  rich  grazing  country,  whose 
southern  end  is  now  occupied  by  thousands  of  cattle, 
horses,  and  sheep.  The  products  of  the  flocks  and 
herds  that  graze  on  the  plains  bordering  the  strait  are 
carried  in  huge  wagons  to  Punta  Arenas,  whence  they 
are  shipped  to  the  mills  and  factories  of  Europe  and 
America,  whither  the  steamers  of  the  port  are  bound. 

The  life  of  the  herders  in  the  sheep  and  cattle  pastures 
of  this  region  is  that  of  the  ranch  and  camp.  It  is  the 
kind  of  life  so  well  known  in  the  United  States  from  the 
early  ranching  people  of  Wyoming  and  western  Texas — 
a  careless,  free,  out-of-door  life  with  much  privation  from 
winter  storms,  snows,  and  cold,  with  plain  fare,  rough 
speech,  a  cheerful  hospitality,  and  a  certain  frankness  not 
always  found  in  the  manners  of  people  who  dwell  in  cities. 

Many  of  the  shepherds  not  only  care  for  their  flocks 
but  also  cultivate  a  few  vegetables,  and  live  in  perma- 
nent homes.  These  men  are  for  the  most  part  English 
and  Scotch.  They  have  found  here  a  country  as  well 
suited  to  grazing  as  their  own,  and  where  it  is  easier  to 
make  a  living  than  in  the  crowded  homeland. 


CHAPTER  III 

PATAGONIA,  THE  "  NO  MAN'S  LAND  "  OF  THE 
OLD  GEOGRAPHIES 

"No  Man's  Land."  Patagonia  has  long  been  known  as 
one  of  the  remote  regions  of  the  world,  and  until  a  few 
score  years  ago  it  was  practically  an  unknown  land.  On 
the  maps  of  the  older  geographies  it  was  named  "No 
Man's  Land,"  for  it  was  the  property  of  neither  Chile 
nor  the  Argentine  and  at  that  time  neither  cared  much 
for  it.  It  was  a  land  of  barren  plains  and  heavy  storms, 
without  any  white  settlers.  Of  late  years  the  region  has 
become  better  known  through  explorations  made  by 
scientific  men  and  the  gradual  occupation  of  the  coast 
by  Europeans  who  have  come  to  the  Argentine  to  engage 
in  the  grazing  industry.  There  are  still  great  areas  in 
which  one  may  travel  for  weeks  without  meeting  a  human 
being,  not  even  an  Indian,  though  even  in  the  remote 
places  men  have  made  explorations  and  have 'given  us 
very  good  descriptions  of  the  extent  of  the  land,  the  na- 
ture of  its  resources,  and  the  character  of  its  scenery. 

The  Meaning  of  the  Word  "Patagonia."  When  the 
Spaniards  first  visited  the  mainland  of  Patagonia  they 
saw  on  the  beach  sands  the  huge  footprints  of  Indians. 
The  discovery  was  made  at  a  time  when  men  were  not 
only  finding  new  wonders  every  day,  but  were  ready  to 
invent  and  believe  the  strangest  tales;  and,  since  they  had 
never  before  seen  human  footprints  so  large  as  these, 
they  at  once  thought  that  they  were  in  a  land  of  giants. 
So  they  called  the  land  "Patagonia,"  which  means  "big 
feet ' '  (patacon  =  big  feet) .  The  people  whose  footprints  had 
excited  the  wonder  of  the  Spaniards  were  the  Tehuelches, 
a  tribe  of  kindly  Indians  who  live  on  the  wide,  cold 

21 


22        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

plains  of  southern  Patagonia.  While  they  are  not 
really  giants,  as  the  early  explorers  described  them,  they 
are,  nevertheless,  unusually  large  (Fig.  7).  The  average 
height  of  the  men  is  about  five  feet  eleven  inches,  and 
their  average  weight  about  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  pounds.  The  average  height  of  the  women  is  five 
feet  seven  inches;  their  weight  is  about  the  same  as  that 
of  the  men.  By  comparison  it  may  be  interesting  to 
note  that  the  average  height  of  the  white  man  is  five 
feet  eight  inches,  and  of  the  white  woman,  five  feet 
four  inches. 

The  Tehuelche  Indians.  Although  the  Tehuelches  are 
an  uncivilized  tribe  they  are  very  friendly  to  the  stranger 
who  travels  among  them.  Their  faces  are  frank,  their 
tents  of  skin  and  their  food  .-are  at  the  traveler's  disposal, 
and  their  kindly  manner  and  gentle  disposition  at  once 
put  the  stranger  at  his  ease.  Many  of  the  whites  who  have 
visited  them  have  not,  however,  treated  them  fairly. 
White  men's  diseases  have  gained  a  foothold  among  these 
children  of  nature,  and  from  a  large  tribe  of  perhaps 
five  thousand  they  have  been  reduced  to  about  five  hun- 
dred. Their  strong  muscular  bodies  are  able  to  with- 
stand the  cold  wind  and  the  snow  of  their  bleak  land,  but 
the  new  diseases,  especially  tuberculosis,  produce  terrible 
effects  among  them.  It  will  be  only  a  matter  of  a  few 
years  until  the  Tehuelche  Indians,  one  of  the  best  tribes 
in  America,  will  cease  to  exist. 

Hunting  the  Rhea  and  the  Guanaco.  The  Tehuelche 
Indians  are  a  hunting  tribe  and  depend  for  their  food 
supply  almost  entirely  on  two  animals  of  the  Patagonian 
plains,  the  rhea,  or  South  American  ostrich,  and  the 
guanaco.  These  they  hunt,  not  with  firearms,  as  white 
men  do,  but  with  bolas,  made  of  two  or  three  small 
round  stones,  or  large  heavy  balls  covered  with  skin 


FIG.  7.    Tehuelche  woman 
23 


24       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

and  fastened  together  by  strings  of  braided  or  twisted 
rawhide.  Holding  one  of  the  stones  in  his  right  hand, 
the  Tehuelche  hunter  rides  after  the  game  at  a  gallop 
until  he  is  within  striking  distance.  The  bola  is  thrown 
in  such  a  way  that  the  whirling  balls  carry  the  strings 
round  and  round  the  legs,  neck,  or  body  of  the  animal, 
entangling  and  tripping  it,  whereupon  the  hunter  dis- 
mounts and  kills  it.  The  rhea  has  such  small  wings 
that  it  is  unable  to  fly  and  must  therefore  depend  upon 
its  legs  for  escape.  Even  flying  birds  may  be  caught  if 
the  hunter  is  able  to  steal  upon  a  flock  close  enough  to 
throw  the  bola  among  them  as  they  rise,  and  entangle 
their  legs  or  wings. 

The  Tehuelche  hunter  did  not  always  depend  upon  the 
bola.  Before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniard  he  hunted 
chiefly  with  bow  and  arrow  and  was  obliged  to  steal 
close  to  the  game  to  bring  it  down.  As  soon  as  the 
horse  was  introduced  the  bow  and  arrow  practically  dis- 
appeared. The  horse  also  helped  the  Tehuelches  in  war 
against  the  Pampa  Indians,  who  lived  on  the  plains  north 
of  the  Rio  Negro.  When  they  depended  upon  their  legs 
for  safety  their  camps  had  to  be  made  in  the  bottoms 
of  deep  canons  or  hidden  away  among  the  rocks  on  the 
side  of  a  valley,  where  their  fierce  northern  neighbors 
could  not  find  them.  As  soon  as  they  learned  the  use  of 
the  horse  they  were  able  to  camp  almost  where  they  chose, 
for  if  an  enemy  came  they  could  take  to  flight  and  have 
a  fair  chance  of  escape. *^To-day  one  may  find  the  old 
camping  grounds  of  the  Tehuelches  in  many  places  along 
the  stream  valleys.  The  ground  is  covered  with  broken 
pottery,  and  pieces  of  the  bones  of  the  guanaco,  rhea,  fishes, 
and  birds,  besides  arrowheads  in  great  numbers. 

The  Harvest  Time  of  the  Tehuelches.  The  busiest 
time  of  year  for  the  Tehuelche  Indians  is  the  guanaco 


PATAGONIA,  THE  "NO  MAN'S  LAND"  25 

chico  or  "little  guanaco"  season.    Then  he  gathers  for 
clothing  not  the  skin  of  the  ordinary  guanaco,  killed  for 


FIG.  8.     Tehuelche  squaw  painting  a  guanaco  skin 

its  meat,  but  the  skin  of  the  very  young.  The  little 
guanaco  season  extends  from  November  1 5  to  February  i . 
After  a  camp  site  has  been  selected  in  some  region  where 
the  guanaco  come  in  great  numbers  to  feed  and  drink, 
the  men  begin  to  hunt  the  young  and  none  is  killed  that 
is  older  than  two  months.  The  very  best  bedding  and 
clothing  is  made  from  the  skins  of  guanaco  that  have  just 
been  born.  The  men  do  the  killing  and  skinning  while  the 
women  dry  and  cure  the  skins  and  make  them  into  gar- 
ments. The  different  skins  are  sewed  together  so  nicely 
that  it  is  difficult  to  tell  where  one  begins  and  the  other 
ends.  Sometimes  very  pretty  effects  are  made  by  com- 
bining certain  natural  colors  in  the  skins  of  the  animals. 
Frequently  the  completed  garment  is  decorated  with 
paint  to  give  it  a  more  striking  appearance  (Fig.  8). 

In  September  and  October  the  Tehuelches  gather  the 
eggs  of  the  rhea.     These  are  laid  in  holes  scooped  out  of 


26       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  ground,  perhaps  forty  or  fifty  in  a  single  spot — due 
to  the  peculiar  habits  of  the  females,  several  of  which 
use  the  same  nest. 

A  Tehuelche  Home.    The  home  of  the  American  boy  or 
girl  is  made  of  wood  or  brick  or  stone,  or  more  rarely  of  sod 


FIG.  9.     A  typical  "toldo"  or  tent,  home  of  a  Tehuelche  family 

or  adobe,  but  the  home  of  the  Tehuelche  child  is  made 
of  the  skin  of  the  guanaco.  The  Patagonian  plains  have 
almost  no  timber,  and  in  place  of  it  the  Indians  must 
use  the  skins  of  animals.  The  Tehuelche  tent,  or  toldo 
as  it  is  called  in  Patagonia,  is  made  of  a  number  of  skins 
sewed  together  and  fitted  over  a  framework  of  poles 
(Fig.  9).  Because  of  the  prevailing  westerly  winds,  the 
front  of  the  tent  is  always  placed  so  as  to  face  the  east. 
Stakes  are  then  placed  at  the  opening  and  to  them  is 
attached  an  apron  about  four  feet  in  height  so  that 
when  the  wind  blows  from  the  east,  as  it  does  once  in  a 
while,  it  may  not  blow  into  the  tents.  Sleeping  places 
are  arranged  in  the  rear,  each  place  being  made  large 


PATAGONIA,  THE   "NO  MAN'S  LAND"  27 

enough  for  two  people.  Adjacent  bunks  are  separated 
from  each  other  by  a  skin  partition.  Rugs  are  spread 
on  the  ground,  and  these  are  covered  with  bedding  which 
consists  of  the  soft  skins  of  the  very  young  guanaco. 

The  toldo  serves  the  Tehuelche  much  better  than  a 
wooden  house  because,  if  he  wishes  to  move  to  a  new 
hunting  ground  or  flee  from  an  enemy,  he  can  with  little 
trouble  pack  up  the  skins,  carry  them  to  a  new  site,  and 
quickly  set  them  up  again.  In  this  rude  home  the  Te- 
huelche has  a  certain  amount  of  comfort  and  altogether 
he  is  fairly  well  off,  for  he  is  physically  well  made,  has 
abundant  game,  and  is  relatively  free  from  trouble  with 
his  neighbors. 

The  Surface  of  Patagonia.  Patagonia  extends  from 
the  Rio  Negro  (Plate  IV)  southward  about  one  thousand 
miles  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan;  and  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  it  is  from  two  hundred  to  four  hundred 
miles  wide.  The  part  that  lies  in  Chile  is  made  up 
chiefly  of  mountains  whose  lower  slopes  are  covered 
with  forests,  and  whose  rocky  and  treeless  upper  slopes 
are  partly  covered  with  snow  and  ice.  Among  these 
mountains  are  a  number  of  fertile  valleys,  and  toward 
the  north  and  east  some  of  these  are  occupied  by  settlers, 
but  by  far  the  greater  number  of  the  people  in  the  region 
live  in  Argentine  Patagonia,  where  treeless,  grassy  plains 
and  a  less  severe  climate  make  grazing  possible.  Pata- 
gonia is  so  vast  that  one  cannot  describe  the  country  as 
a  whole  in  a  general  way  but  must  divide  it  into  natural 
regions,  each  of  which  has  rather  uniform  surface  and 
climate.  Along  the  eastern  coast  there  is  a  narrow  strip 
of  land  about  twenty  to  fifty  miles  in  width  marked  by 
wave-cut  terraces  of  great  size.  In  the  general  uplift  of 
the  land  there  were  intervals  when  the  land  remained 
at  a  given  level  long  enough  for  the  waves  to  plane 


28       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

off  a  coastal  platform.  The  process,  repeated  several 
times,  at  length  gave  rise  to  a  series  of  platforms  each 
with  a  flat  top  and  a  rather  abrupt  face.  Uplift  later 
on  made  terraces  out  of  the  platforms. 

The  Herdsmen  of  the  Coast.  In  the  best  places 
along  the  coast  one  finds  settlements  such  as  Gallegos 
(Fig.  i o),  Port  Desire,  Port  San  Julian,  and  Santa  Cruz, 
The  people  who  live  in  these  out-of-the-way  places  are 
Scotchmen,  Englishmen,  Welshmen,  and  a.  few  Germans 
and  Italians.  They  have  come  from  their  crowded  home 


FIG.  10.    Rio  Gallegos,  Patagonia,  at  low  tide 

countries  to  a  new  continent  where  land  is  free,  and 
although  they  are  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  world  and 
live  in  rough  homes,  they  at  least  have  plenty  to  eat 
and  to  wear.  Nor  is  the  new  home  entirely  different 
from  the  old  one,  for  the  people  who  come  to  Patagonia 
are  for  the  most  part  herdsmen.  To  the  Scotsman  espe- 
cially the  new  home  is  quite  like  the  old,  with  its  frequent 
storms,  its  dull,  leaden  skies,  its  low  temperature,  and 
its  extensive  sheep  pastures. 

The  Shingle  Plain  of  Patagonia.  West  of  the  coastal 
strip  of  land  where  most  of  the  herders  live,  one  finds  an 
upland  region  of  little  value  to  man.  The  rainfall, 
insufficient  for  the  best  growth  of  grass,  sinks  rapidly 


PATAGONIA,  THE   "NO  MAN'S  LAND"  29 

into  the  earth  and  in  places  leaves  the  surface  dry  and 
barren.  In  the  southern  part  of  Patagonia  is  a  region 
covered  with  coarse  gravel  and  small  stones  that  go  by 
the  name  of  shingle.  This  material  was  laid  down  by 
icebergs  when  the  land  stood  lower  than  now  and  while 
local  ice  sheets  covered  the  mountains  to  the  west.  As 
the  icebergs  drifted  seaward  over  what  is  now  the  shingle 
plain,  they  were  gradually  melted  and  their  load  of  sand 
and  gravel  was  dropped  to  the  sea  floor,  —  the  surface 
that  was  later  to  become  the  land  of  to-day.  The 
process  was  not  unlike  that  off  Newfoundland  and  still 
farther  south  where  icebergs  from  Greenland  finally 
melt  and  drop  their  load  of  waste  on  the  continental 
shelf  which  they  have  helped  to  make.  A  part  of  the 
material  was  washed  into  place  by  streams  that  desceno^ed 
from  the  mountains  after  the  land  rose  above  the  sea. 

Besides  the  shingle  plain  there  is  in  the  Argentine 
provinces  of  Santa  Cruz  and  Chubut  a  great  tract  of 
barren  plateau  country.  Molten  rock  from  the  earth's 
interior  was  here  forced  out  through  fissures  in  the  earth's 
crust  to  form  a  thick  surface  layer  of  rock  known  as 
basalt.  So  recently  was  this  plateau  formed  that  the 
rock  has  not  yet  decayed  to  form  soil;  hence  grasses  and 
shrubs  are  almost  wholly  lacking.  The  rivers  that  flow 
through  the  basalt  plateau  have  cut  deep  canons  that  are 
very  difficult  to  cross.  The  guanaco  and  the  vizcacha, 
a  kind  of  prairie  dog,  live  along  the  canon  floors,  where 
a  little  vegetation  may  be  found.  At  irregular  intervals 
Indian  bands  wander  through  the  region,  but  it  is  too 
wild  to  attract  settlers  in  large  numbers. 

The  Belt  of  Pastures  at  the  Foot  of  the  Andes.  Along 
the  eastern  foot  of  the  Patagonian  Andes  is  a  narrow 
belt  of  gravels  and  sands  largely  the  deposits  of  former 
glaciers  and  the  rivers  that  they  fed.  The  loose  material 


30        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

is  drained  by  clear  mountain  streams,  and  upon  the  valley 
floors  there  is  rich  pasture.  North  of  Punta  Arenas,  as 
well  as  near  Lake  Nahuel  Huapi,  the  pastures  are  used 
to  a  growing  extent  (Fig.  n),  but  in  the  long  stretch 
between,  most  of  the  land  is  idle  because  it  is  too  remote 
from  the  sea  and  the  railway.  Wool  and  hides  cannot 
be  profitably  carried  over  the  great  distances  to  the  ports. 
Until  railways  afford  an  outlet  to  the  eastern  coast  of 
Patagonia  men  will  not  be  tempted  to  make  their  homes 
there,  since  they  would  be  outside  the  currents  of  trade 
and  obliged  to  live  a  rough  life,  depending  entirely  upon 
the  country  for  everything  they  would  need  to  eat  and 
wear.  When  railways  are  finally  built  the  region  will 
develop,  but  until  then  it  will  be  one  of  the  idle  lands 
of  the  earth. 

The  most  common  inhabitant  of  the  region  to-day  is 
the  tucotuco,  a  little  animal  that  burrows  in  the  ground 
like  a  mole  and  eats  the  tender  roots  of  the  grasses. 
Many  kinds  of  birds  are  found  on  the  great  lakes  that 
lie  along  the  mountain  front,  and  the  fleet  guanaco  roams 
the  grassy  valleys,  almost  undisturbed  by  man. 

The  Lonely  Settlements  of  Western  Patagonia.  About 
the  headwaters  of  the  Chubut  and  the  Negro  rivers  in 
northern  Patagonia  is  a  line  of  settlements  of  special 
interest.  They  have  been  formed  of  Chilean  and  Argen- 
tine pioneers  who  have  discovered  in  these  good  pas- 
tures an  easy  means  of  livelihood.  The  cattle  are 
driven  into  Chile  and  also  to  the  ends  of  railways  that 
extend  into  northern  Patagonia.  For  example,  cattle 
from  Lelejo,  far  south  of  Nahuel  Huapi,  are  driven  to 
Neuquen,  whence  they  go  by  rail  to  the  coast.  Although 
the  distance  into  Chile  is  shorter  it  involves  crossing  the 
Andes  Mountains  by  way  of  passes  covered  with  snow  a 
part  of  the  year.  Difficult  as  these  conditions  appear, 


PATAGONIA,  THE  "NO  MAN'S  LAND"  31 

the  venture  has  proved  profitable  enough  to  continue  to 
attract  an  increasing  number  of  new  settlers.     It  is  a 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  ii.    Lake  Nahuel  Huapi,  Argentine  Republic.     This  is  the 
westernmost  extremity  of  the  lake.    Here  the  real  pass  across 
the  Cordillera  begins  and  the  boundary  between  the  two  re- 
publics is  only  eight  miles  distant 

novel  sight  in  the  headwater  portions  of  these  valleys  to 
come  suddenly  upon  isolated  settlements  where  tufted 
grasses  support  flourishing  herds.  One  settler  near 
Los  Repollos,  at  the  head  of  the  Nuevo  valley,  raises 
horses  and  sheep  as  well  as  cattle  and  sells  his  cattle  to 
traders  who  come  into  the  valley  from  Chile.  Lonely 
puestos,  or  shepherds'  huts,  may  be  seen  in  the  most 
remote  corners  and  are  a  sign  that  the  land  has  been  well 
spied  out  by  the  herders,  those  pioneers  of  settlements. 

The  Welsh  Settlers  and  the  Valley  of  the  i6th  of 
October.  The  most  interesting  settlement  among  these 
remote  people  is  the  group  of  two  or  three  hundred  that 
lives  in  the  Valley  of  the  i6th  of  October  (Plate  IV).  It 
should  be  explained  first  that  streets,  towns,  and  even 


32        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

river  valleys  in  Spanish  America  are  sometimes  named  after 
important  historical  dates,  and  that  this  curious  name 
has  been  applied  to  the  valley  because  it  marks  the  day 
the  settlers  reached  it.  Here  in  a  lovely  valley  of  great 
fertility  is  a  colony  of  settlers  from  Wales.  All  about 
are  grassy  hills  which  slope  gently  to  the  green  flats  of 
the  valley  floor.  Cattle  and  sheep  are  produced,  but  the 
great  distance  from  market  is  a  serious  drawback  to  the 
further  development  of  grazing.  For  a  time  cattle  had 
to  be  driven  some  five  hundred  miles  north  of  Lake 
Nahuel  Huapi  before  they  found  a  convenient  pass  across 
the  Andes  to  the  Chilean  towns.  Direct  connection  with 
the  outside  world  is  by  way  of  the  Chubut  valley  to  the 
Atlantic,  where  lives  the  larger  parent  colony  of  Welsh  set- 
tlers from  which  those  in  the  Valley  of  the  i6th  of  October 
came ;  and  in  later  years  communication  has  been  estab- 
lished across  the  mountains  south  of  Nahuel  Huapi  from 
Junin  de  los  Andes  and  San  Martin  de  los  Andes  into 
Chile  (Plate  IV). 

The  way  in  which  these  Welsh  folk  of  the  Chubut 
valley  came  to  South  America  is  full  of  geographic  interest. 
About  1860  some  of  the  mechanics  and  small  farmers  of 
Wales  became  discontented  and  restless  under  the  rule  of 
England  and  desired  a  home  in  some  other  land  where 
they  could  preserve  all  their  old  national  customs  and 
language,  worship  according  to  their  own  notions,  and 
be  entirely  free  from  taxation.  This  idea  of  absolute 
freedom  was  born  of  the  liberty  the  Welsh  had  enjoyed 
for  centuries  in  the  forests  and  rough  mountains  of  Wales 
before  their  conquest  by  the  English.  Their  mountain 
home  had  bred  in  them  a  strong  love  of  independence  and, 
in  looking  about  for  a  new  home  where  they  could  be  as 
free  as  they  once  had  been  in  the  old  days,  they  selected 
"No  Man's  Land,"  or  Patagonia,  where  the  Argentine 


PATAGONIA,  THE   "NO  MAN'S  LAND"  33 

government  in  1862  granted  to  each  family  about  one 
square  mile  of  land. 

But  when  the  first  settlers  arrived  they  were  greatly 
disappointed,  for  the  country  appeared  wild  and  barren, 
the  climate  was  more  severe  than  that  of  Wales,  there 
were  no  trees,  and  the  soil  gave  little  promise  of  good  crops. 
In  other  places  in  the  Argentine  there  was  better  land, 
but  the  settlers  had  no  money  to  buy  it,  and  they  would 
rather  live  in  a  wilderness  than  in  a  land  of  plenty  and  have 
troublesome  neighbors.  So  they  crowded  into  the  narrow 
Chubut  valley,  built  irrigation  canals,  and  after  terrible 
hardships,  of  which  the  world  still  knows  but  little,  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  enough  wheat  for  home  needs  and  even 
for  export.  Chubut  wheat  was  once  famous  throughout 
the  Argentine,  but  the  acreage  is  too  small  to  make  the 
product  important.  The  chief  products  of  to-day  are 
wool  and  alfalfa. 

In  1 88 1,  or  about  the  time  that  the  Welsh  settlers 
began  to  feel  established,  "No  Man's  Land"  came  into 
the  definite  possession  of  the  Argentine  and  was  no  longer 
a  neglected  territory.  Up  to  that  time  the  Welsh  had 
been  relatively  free  from  taxation  and  had  managed  their 
own  affairs.  Since  then  Argentine  officials  have  interfered 
with  the  once  quiet  life  of  the  settlers.  Military  service 
in  the  National  Guard  is  required,  Spanish  must  be 
taught  in  the  schools,  and  taxes  regularly  paid.  The 
religious  Welsh  find  military  service  especially  distasteful 
since  the  regimental  parades  are  held  on  Sunday. 

Finally,  as  the  people  steadily  increased  in  numbers, 
the  valley  became  overcrowded.  Instead  of  farms  a  few 
thousand  acres  in  extent,  each  family  had  only  a  few 
hundred  acres.  The  Chubut  valley  became  like  a  hive 
overstocked  with  bees.  It  seemed  better  for  a  part  of 
the  colony  to  move  out  and  give  the  others  more  room,  so 


34        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

in  1895  a  small  group  moved  westward  and  settled  in 
the  "  Valley  of  the  i6th  of  October." 

Added  to  these  sources  of  discontent  were  the  floods 
which  visited  the  valley  in  1899  and  again  in  1902.  At 
first  the  great  difficulty  had  been  the  want  of  water,  not 
the  abundance  of  it,  and  when  floods  came  the  poor 
irrigation  works  were  broken  down  and  the  valley  was 
covered  with  water. 

Other  Welsh  settlements  have  been  made  near  the 
coast,  as  at  Porto  Madryn,  Rawson,  and  Trelew,  and  with 
the  growth  in  railways  and  irrigation  works  the  colonists 
will  become  more  attached  to  their  new  home  (Plate  IV) . 

Railways  in  Patagonia.  The  Argentine  government  is 
now  building  railways  into  the  more  valuable  portions  of 
Patagonia,  and  when  these  are  completed  the  settlers  who 
have  already  built  homes  in  the  region  will  be  much 
better  off  and  new  settlements  will  probably  be  made  in 
large  numbers.  The  railway  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Negro  valley  has  been  extended  westward  almost  to 
the  mountains,  about  three  hundred  miles,  and  it  will 
soon  reach  the  Lake  Nahuel  Huapi  district,  rich  in 
resources  of  soil,  water,  and  climate.  Thence  the  line 
will  extend  into  Chile  by  way  of  the  Cajon  Negro  Pass 
and  branch  lines  will  be  built  northward  to  San  Martin 
and  Junin  de  los  Andes  and  southward  along  the  base 
of  the  mountains  to  the  flourishing  colony  of  Welsh 
settlers  in  the  Valley  of  the  i6th  of  October.  These 
important  lines  will  supply  an  outlet  for  rich  pastures 
and  still  richer  farms  where  the  grains  and  fruits  of  the 
temperate  zone  will  be  produced  in  large  quantities. 
Moreover,  shorter  railways  will  soon  be  built  from  various 
other  points  on  the  east  coast  westward  into  the  better 
portions  of  the  country,  where  settlers  may  find  permanent 
homes. 


SOUTHERN 
SOUTH  AMERICA 

SCALE 


pn 

Steamship  lines 
Cities  with  30.000  and  over Chilian 


CapcHorn'  Copyright  1914,  bj  Rand  McNally  &  Co. 

PLATE  IV.     Southern  South  America 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  ARGENTINE 

A  Big  Country  with  Few  People.  Next  to  Brazil,  the// 
Argentine  is  the  largest  country  of  South  America  and 
has  the  largest  number  of  people.  But  even  this  rank  . 
means  less  then  one  might  suppose.  There  are  only  a 
little  over  seven  million  people  in  the  Argentine,  or  only 
a  million  more  than  live  in  New  York  City  alone.  The 
population  of  New  England  is  nearly  as  great  as  that  of 
the  Argentine,  and  that  of  Belgium  is  almost  the  same. 
Yet  the  Argentine  is  more  than  a  third  as  large  as  the 
United  States  and  only  a  little  less  than  a  third  as  large 
as  Europe.  In  thinking  about  the  Argentine  it  will  be 
worth  while  to  remember  that  a  country  may  have  a  great 
deal  of  land  and  yet  contain  very  few  people.  When  the 
United  States  gained  its  independence  there  were  about 
three  million  people  in  it,  or  about  as  many  as  live  in 
Bolivia  to-day  and  about  half  as  many  as  now  live  in  New 
York  City.  We  had  a  great  deal  of  land  at  that  time, 
but  much  of  it  was  uninhabited.  The  Argentine  is  in  that 
condition  to-day;  if  its  more  than  a  million  square  miles 
of  territory  were  divided  equally  among  all  the  people 
each  person  would  have  a  farm  of  about  one  hundred 
acres.  In  the  United  States  each  inhabitant  would  have 
about  twenty-three  acres,  in  France  four  acres,  and  in 
England  about  one  acre. 

We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  a  country  may  be 
small  in  population  and  yet  have  the  resources  for  becom- 
ing larger  in  the  near  future.  Though  the  Argentine  has 
less  than  seven  and  a  half  million  people  there  is  good 
land  that  will  support  millions  more. 

35 


36        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Large  Spaces  for  Grazing.    Vast  tracts  of  Argentine  - 
territory  are  covered  with  grass  and  are  therefore  used 


Courtesy  of  Rudolph  Schovill 

FIG.  12.     Corral  at  Guayamini,  Argentine 

for  the  raising  of  cattle,  sheep,  horses,  and  mules.  Even 
if  all  the  water  that  nqw  runs  to  waste  in  the  rivers  that 
cross  the  drier  plains  of  the  Argentine  were  turned  out 
upon  the  land,  large  areas  probably  would  still  be  left 
without  a  water  supply  capable  of  supporting  crops. 
Upon  such  areas  we  shall  always  find  the  life  of  the  ranch, 
as  on  our  western  plains;  their  people  will  always  be 
herders  and  cowboys;  their  products  will  always  be  sheep, 
cattle,  horses,  and  mules  (Fig.  12). 

The  number  of  people  that  can  live  on  a  square  mile 
of  even  good  grazing  land  is  very  small.  Here  are  no 
large  crowded  cities  like  those  we  find  in  agricultural  or 
manufacturing  regions.  The  population  is  spread  out 


THE  ARGENTINE  37 

over  a  large  area;  houses  are  few  and  far  between;  the 
towns  are  little  more  than  clusters  of  houses  grouped 
about  a  railroad  station;  wide  expanses  of  land  stretch 
out  in  all  directions  with  but  the  thinnest  sprinkling  of 
human  beings. 

The  Vast  Pampas.  By  far  the  most  important  region 
of  the  Argentine  is  that  known  as  the  pampas,  the  flat 
plains  that  occupy  the  greater  part  of  the  country.  The 
name  "pampa"  is  of  Indian  origin  and  was  in  use  when 
the  Spaniards  first  came  to  the  Argentine.  It  is  given 
to  any  open  level  tract  whether  it  is  grass-covered  or 
desert,  in  a  high  situation  or  near  sea  level.  In  the 
Argentine,  however,  the  name  is  applied  to  the  plains 
that  occupy  the  central  portion  of  the  country.  More 
precisely,  the  region  of  the  pampas  stretches  from  the 
Salado  River  on  the  north  to  the  Negro  on  the  south  and 
from  near  the  base  of  the  Andes  Mountains  on  the  west 
to  the  Parana  and  Paraguay  rivers  on  the  east.  So  great 
a  tract  has  many  small  differences  in  relief,  rainfall,  vege- 
tation, and  products,  but  there  are  also  some  general 
features  common  to  the  whole  region. 

Quite  the  first  thing  that  strikes  the  traveler  through 
the  pampas  is  their  exceeding  flatness  (Fig.  13).  For 
long  distances  the  eye  can  distinguish  no  differences  of 
level;  the  surface  appears  to  be  like  the  world  of  the 
ancients, —  a  vast  plain  stretching  out  to  the  great  world 
river  that  encircled  the  earth.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
pampas  are  not  quite  flat.  They  consist  in  large  part  of 
shallow  basins  with  floors  partly  covered  with  salt  or 
sand  or  lakes  of  variable  depth  and  extent.  For  the 
most  part  the  water  of  the  tributary  streams  is  lost  in 
the  sand  or  evaporated  from  the  surfaces  of  lakes. 
Counting  large  and  small,  the  basins  number  many 
hundreds  and  have  important  effects  on  the  drainage 


SOUTH  AMERICA:  A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


and  the  life  of  the  pampas  though  they  are  too  shallow 
to  be  a  prominent  or  indeed  in  places  even  a  visible 

feature  of  the  relief. 
The  pampas  also  slope 
toward  the  east,  a 
feature  due  to  the  way 
in  which  they  were 
formed.  They  are 
built  of  alluvial  mat- 
ter, —  sand,  gravel, 
and  silt  carried  down 
from  the  Andes  by 
the  eastward  flowing 
streams.  In  small  part 

Q£Q       COltt- 


Courtesy  of  Rudolph  Schevill 

FlG.  13.   Plowing  on  the  Argentine  pam-  j       r  j 

pas.    Cochico  ranch,  near  Guayamini,        Posed    ot   marine    de- 
Argentine.   The  tufted  grass  is  called         posits  formed   on  the 
"pampa  grass11  and  on  it  feed  the  ,     -.    r  ,.,  « 

great  herds  of  cattle  and  the  bed  of  the  ocean  when 

wild  guanaco  part  of  what   is   now 

land  was  under  the  sea.  The  vast  expanses  of  the  pam- 
pas are  interrupted  by  a  few  small  mountain  ranges. 
They  but  serve  to  emphasize  the  flatness  of  the  plains 
around  them  and  are  important  as  the  source  of  streams 
used  for  irrigation. 

The  monotony  of  the  outlook  over  the  central  plains 
is  one  of  the  qualities  of  Argentine  scenery  never  for- 
gotten. A  vast  expanse  of  plain  stretching  away  to  a 
flat  horizon  is  the  most  common  sight  during  a  journey 
across  them.  Little  clumps  of  eucalyptus  trees  here 
and  there  dot  the  plain,  small  clumps  grow  about  the 
huts  of  the  shepherds,  and  border  the  avenues  near  the 
houses  of  the  estancieros  or  ranchmen.  The  head- 
quarters of  an  estate  is  marked  by  a  windmill,  an  almost 
universal  sign  of  the  pampas.  Sometimes  the  monotony 


THE  ARGENTINE  39 

of  the  view  is  broken  by  the  brown  of  a  freshly  plowed 
field,  or  the  tasseled  green  of  corn,  or  a  lagoon  or  swamp 
bordered  by  a  belt  of  salt-covered  plain  and  dotted  with 
water  fowl  that  make  their  home  in  great  numbers  on 
its  reedy  shores.  Once  in  a  while  a  South  American 
ostrich,  or  rhea,  may  be  seen  stalking  along  or  feeding 
with  a  flock  of  sheep.  These  and  countless  herds  of  cat- 
tle are  the  chief  living  features  of  the  extensive  pampas 
of  the  Argentine. 

A  Country  where  Everybody  Rides  Horseback.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  people  of  the  Argentine  rest  on  two 
feet  and  travel  on  four.  The  remark  helps  us  to  under- 
stand how  very  common  is  horseback  riding  in  this 
country  of  flat  plains  where  even  the  distances  from  house 
to  house  are  too  great  to  traverse  on  foot.  Everybody 
rides,  and  even  very  young  boys  learn  to  ride  the  swiftest 
horses.  The  managers  of  the  large  ranches  visit  and 
their  men  round  up  their  herds  and  flocks  on  horseback 
(Fig.  14);  children  ride  when  they  visit  their  playmates 
at  a  neighboring  ranch  house;  and  the  hunter  must 
ride  because  the  game  animals  of  the  flat  plains  can  see 
for  long  distances  and  are  very  fleet. 

Mirage  and  Cloud  Scenery  of  the  Pampas.  Like  the 
prairies  and  the  western  plains  of  our  own  country  the 
pampas  of  the  Argentine  are  a  constant  source  of  interest 
to  the  traveler  who  sees  them  for  the  first  time.  Their 
vast  expanses  are  sublime;  in  the  wind  and  the  darkness 
they  awaken  in  the  lonely  traveler  a  feeling  of  terror; 
the  limitless  wilderness  of  grass  and  flowers,  with  its 
scattered  people  and  its  unbroken  expanses,  is  a  marvel 
of  plains  scenery,  with  extraordinary  changes  in  color 
from  morning  to  night.  Upon  the  hot  pampas  at  midday 
the  mirage  sometimes  produces  magical  effects.  "A 
patch  of  plain  becomes  a  lake,  a  distant  thistle  field  a 


40        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


forest  of  tall  timber,  a  dreary  marsh  a  troop  of  phantom 
horsemen."   (Keane.) 

The  cloud  effects  are  the  most  marvelous  of  all  the 
pampa  sights.  When  a  thunderstorm  comes  up,  the 
great  bulky  clouds  are  not  hidden  or  half-hidden  by 
surrounding  hills  as  in  a  rough  country;  the  whole  cloud 
mass  is  clearly  visible  moving  over  the  pampa  miles 
away;  all  the  awe  of  the  thunder  and  the  lightning  is 
clear  to  the  senses.  Of  more  delicate  beauty  are  the 
cloud  effects  in  fair  weather.  Huge  masses  of  cumulus 
clouds  float  majestically  through  the  air,  their  fleecy 
white  thrown  in  sharp  contrast  against  the  deep  blue 
of  the  sky.  At  sunset  the  pampas  are  transformed  no 


irtesy  of  the  Pau-Anu-riean  Uuion 


FIG.  14.    Argentine  cowboy 


THE  ARGENTINE  41 

less  wonderfully  than  at  sunrise.  In  the  softening  light, 
clouds  and  waving  grasses  are  brought  out  more  distinctly 
and  the  west  is  tinged  with  delicate  tints  or  bathed  in 
the  most  extravagant  colors. 

The  Grasses  of  the  Pampas.  The  vast  central  region 
of  the  pampas  is  peculiar  in  having  a  grass  cover  of  nearly 
uniform  quality  and  of  few  species.  A  common  sort  is 
that  known  as  pampa  grass,  which  is  found  in  the  wetter 
places,  as  about  the  shores  of  fresh-water  lakes  or  along 
the  valley  floors  where  water  is  abundant.  In  the  drier 
portions  of  the  pampas  both  coarse  and  fine  grasses  grow 
in  tussocks  separated  by  a  few  feet  or  inches  of  bare 
ground  or  by  inferior  varieties  of  grasses  and  flowers  and 
a  few  slender  herbs  and  low  shrubs.  The  soft  grasses  are 
excellent  for  sheep ;  the  coarse  grasses  are  the  food  of  the 
great  herds  of  cattle  for  which  the  pampas  are  noted 

(Fig.  13)- 

The  Strong  Pampa  Winds.  For  several  hundreds  of 
miles  there  are  no  important  interruptions  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  air  and,  once  the  wind  begins,  it  blows  with 
almost  the  same  freedom  as  at  sea.  The  south  winds, 
or  the  so-called  antarctic  gales,  are  particularly  violent. 
And  from  the  north  comes  the  zonda,  blowing  with 
great  strength  at  intervals  during  the  winter  months  (July 
and  August).  Perhaps  the  most  violent  winds  of  all 
are  the  dreaded  and  boisterous  pamperos,  which  blow 
from  the  southwest.  For  days  the  temperature  will  rise 
with  the  continuance  of  the  north  wind  until  the  air 
becomes  almost  suffocatingly  hot.  Suddenly  the  wind 
changes,  the  southwest  pampero  begins  to  blow,  thunder 
and  lightning,  a  gloomy  sky,  and  abundant  rain  accom- 
pany it,  and  in  almost  an  instant  the  hot  air  is  swept 
away  before  a  bracing  gale  that  leaves  one  shivering  where 
before  there  was  almost  tropic  heat.  If  long  continued, 


42        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  pamperos  do  great  damage  to  the  cultivated  fields 
of  corn.  Along  the  seacoast  in  the  vicinity  of  Buenos 
Aires  the  winds  from  the  sea  blow  during  the  southern 
summer  with  great  strength,  often  becoming  gales  that 
strew  the  coast  with  wreckage  and  blow  back  the  waters 
of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  to  such  an  extent  as  to  flood  the 
country  far  inland. 

Where  Farmers  Take  Chances  with  the  Rain.  Of 
most  serious  consequences  to  man  are  the  droughts  for 
which  the  dr}^  western  plains  are  well  known.  They 
sometimes  burn  up  the  grasses  and  wither  the  shrubs, 
dry  up  the  lakes  and  streams,  and  turn  what  was  before 
a  profitable  range  into  a  land  that  is  half  desert. 

We  shall  be  able  to  understand  these  droughts  by 
first  noting  the  way  in  which  the  pampa  rainfall  is 
distributed.  Plate  I  shows  a  gradual  increase  in  the 
rainfall  from  west  to  east,  with  a  maximum  in  the  eastern- 
most provinces  of  the  republic.  In  the  west  it  is  too 
dry  for  agriculture  without  irrigation  and  man  does  not 
depend  directly  upon  rain  for  the  growing  of  grains  and 
vegetables.  The  farther  east  one  goes  the  better  become 
one's  chances  of  raising  crops  without  irrigation,  and 
in  the  province  of  Buenos  Aires  farming  on  a  large  scale 
is  carried  on  without  the  artificial  use  of  water.  The 
rainfall  is  reliable,  large  crops  are  produced  every  year, 
and  the  farmers  are  prosperous  (Fig.  15).  But  every  few 
years  the  edge  of  the  dry  belt  moves  farther  east  than 
usual  and  brings  losses  to  the  farmers  of  that  region. 

In  these  respects  then  the  dry  border  of  the  pampas 
of  the  Argentine  reminds  us  of  the  plains  of  western  Kan- 
sas, Nebraska,  and  Oklahoma,  where  droughts  sometimes 
ruin  the  crops  and  spread  discontent  among  the  farmers. 
These  are  the  risky  places  of  the  earth,  where  man  must 
take  chances  with  the  rain. 


THE  ARGENTINE 


43 


The  Prairie  Dog  of  the  Pampas.  Late  one  afternoon  a 
number  of  horsemen  were  riding  across  a  sandy  pampa 
toward  their  camp 
beside  a  spring. 
One  was  a  stran- 
ger, who  rode  a 
strong  beast  that 
galloped  far  ahead 
of  the  rest.  Sud- 
denly his  horse 
stumbled  and  fell 
over  and  over, 
throwing  the  rider 
at  least  twenty 
feet.  When  he 
hurried  back  to  his 
beast  he  found 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  15.     An  alfalfa  stacker  at  work  on 
an  Argentine  ranch 


both   its   forelegs 

broken,  and  to 

end  its  sufferings  he  was  obliged  to  shoot   it.     Then, 

lame    from   his   fall,    the   stranger   walked  into  camp, 

where   he    arrived    long    after   dark.     He   would    have 

been  lost  had  not  the  others  built  a  great  brush  fire 

as  a  signal. 

The  cause  of  all  this  trouble  was  a  small  hole  made  by 
a  pampa  animal  called  the  vizcacha,  which  is  in  some 
respects  like  our  prairie  dog.  He  lives  in  dark  chambers  in 
the  loose  soil  and  is  on  friendly  terms  with  the  burrowing 
owl  and  other  night  birds  in  their  underground  homes. 
He  may  be  seen  far  up  in  the  mountains  and  plateaus  of 
Bolivia  and  Chile,  where  his  shrill  chattering  relieves  the 
mountain  stillness,  but  his  true  home  and  the  place  that 
he  likes  the  best  is  the  pampa  country  of  the  central  Ar- 
gentine. Upon  the  grassy  plains  he  finds  his  choicest  food 


44        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

—  tender,  sweet  roots  and  stems  of  grasses  and  herbs. 
In  some  places  a  colony  of  vizcachas  will  clear  away  the 
grass  about  the  burrows  and  make  an  open  space  where 
they  may  play  in  the  sun  for  hours.     When  an  enemy 
approaches,  warning  is  given,  and  all  the  members  of 
the  colony  scurry  to  their  deep-chambered  holes.     In 
some  places  the  ground  is  so  full  of  vizcacha  holes  that 
a  horse  is  scarcely  able  to  walk,  and  galloping  is  quite 
impossible.     The  ranchmen  despise  this  little  beast,  since 
it  not  only  causes  the  loss  of  cattle  and  horses  but  also 
kills  the  grasses  by  gnawing  off  the  roots.     These,  like 
the  other  pests  which  now  prevail,  will  largely  disappear 
with  the  coming  of  the  permanent  settler. 

Birds  and  Insects  of  the  Pampas.  Waterfowl  of 
many  kinds  and  in  vast  numbers  are  found  upon  the 
plains,  where  they  congregate  about  the  borders  of 
lagoons.  Here  are  the  black-necked  swan  and  the 
flamingo,  wild  duck  of  many  sorts,  sandpipers,  ibises, 
herons,  cranes,  and  spoonbills.  The  ornithologist  finds 
here  an  extraordinary  field  for  the  study  of  the  habits, 
colors,  and  shapes  of  the  pampa  birds.  On  page  24  is  a 
description  of  the  hunting  of  the  rhea,  or  South  American 
ostrich,  found  in  great  numbers  in  the  Argentine. 

It  might  seem  as  if  those  tiny  inhabitants  of  the  plains 

—  the  ticks,  flies,  and  mosquitos — might  go  unmentioned, 
for  they  are  far  from  interesting  things  to  talk  about, 
but  when  we  learn  that  there  are  whole  districts  where 
man  does  not  find  life  endurable  because  of  their  presence 
they  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  great  natural  force.     "They 
are  nature's  miserable  castaways,  parasitical  tribes  lost 
in  a  great  dry  wilderness  where  no  blood  is;  and  every 
marsh-born   mosquito,    piping   of   the   hunger   gnawing 
its  vitals,  and  every  forest  tick,  blindly  feeling  with  its 
grappling-irons  for  the   beast   that  never   brushes   by, 


THE  ARGENTINE  45 

seems  to  tell  us  of  a  world  peopled  with  gigantic  forms, 
.  .  ,  which  once  afforded  abundant  pasture  to  the 
parasite,  and  which  the  parasite  perhaps  assisted  to 
overthrow. ' '  (Hudson.)  The  ' '  gigantic  forms ' '  are  those 
mammals  and  reptiles  of  huge  size  that  once  roamed 
these  plains,  whose  bones  are  now  found  deeply  buried 
by  the  age-long  accumulations  of  sand  and  mud  out  of 
which  the  pampas  are  built. 

Hudson  has  well  described  the  dragon-fly  storms  that 
come  just  in  advance  of  the  pampero,  that  strong  south- 
west wind  of  which  we  have  already  read.  Because  they 
are  associated  with  the  pampero  the  dragon  flies  are 
called  "children  of  the  pampa  wind."  They  fly  close  to 
the  surface  and  in  such  clouds  that  the  air  for  ten  or  twelve 
feet  above  the  earth  seems  full  of  them.  They  rush  by 
with  great  speed  and  seek  the  shelter  of  groves  and 
forests,  where  they  cling  to  the  trees  until  the  wind  dies 
down.  Unlike  the  locusts  (which  swarm  in  like  numbers), 
they  do  not  eat  the  vegetation  but  fall  upon  the  ticks 
and  sand  flies,  "causing  them  to  vanish  like  smoke." 

How  the  Pampas  Affect  Animals.  Out  upon  the  flat 
stretches  of  the  pampas  there  originally  roamed  two  ani- 
mals of  exceptional  interest,  the  guanaco  and  the  vicuna, 
cousins  of  the  llama  and  alpaca.  To-day  the  vicuna  is 
found  almost  wholly  in  the  mountains,  but  the  guanaco 
still  roams  the  plains,  especially  in  Patagonia.  These 
wary  animals  are  exceedingly  fleet  and  are  hunted  with 
great  difficulty.  Like  the  wapiti  of  our  western  plains, 
the  guanaco  has  been  obliged  to  develop  speed,  for  the 
open  plains  do  not  enable  it  to  find  ready  hiding  places. 
This  development  of  speed  is  no  less  a  response  of  the 
animal  to  the  open  character  of  the  plains  than  is  the 
burrowing  instinct  of  the  vizcacha  which  enables  it  to 
hide  quickly  from  an  enemy. 


46        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Even  those  animals  that  have  been  brought  to  the 
pampas  from  Europe  have  undergone  changes  in  response 

to  the  nature  of  the 
climate  and  the  vege- 
tation of  the  pampas. 
Thus  there  has  been 
developed  a  pampa 
breed  of  sheep  hav- 
ing tall,  gaunt,  bony 
frames,  lean,  dry  flesh, 
and  long,  straight  wool 
like  goat's  hair.  These 
qualities  are  far  differ- 
ent from  those  desired, 

Courtesy  of  Rudolph  Schevill  j     •  r     .  -i  •  <     « 

FIG.  16.  Canvas  tent  on  the  Cochico  ranch,  and  lf .  the  ammal  ^ 

Argentine.    The  tent  is  folded  up  and  acquiring     them     has 

carried  from  place  to  place  by  become  better  able  tn 

the  herders  who  drive  the  cattle 

from  one  pasture  ground  live  happily  Upon  the 

pampas  he  has  by  just 

this  amount  become  less  suited  to  man  as  a  source  of 
food  and  clothing.  To  keep  their  stock  improved  the 
breeders  of  the  Argentine  must  constantly  bring  in  new 
blood  from  other  countries.  Some  of  the  animals  intro- 
duced by  man  have  run  wild,  such  as  the  dog  and  the 
horse;  the  wild  horse,  at  one  time  found  in  great  bands, 
has  now  all  but  disappeared. 

The  Gauchos.  Like  our  cowboys  of  the  plains  the 
gauchos  of  the  Argentine  live  almost  entirely  on  horse- 
back, a  free,  rough  life  full  of  hardship.  The  imagination 
of  many  people  who  have  read  about  the  gaucho  a  little, 
and  seen  him  not  at  all,  has  played  with  his  qualities  and 
made  him  a  far  more  courteous  and  chivalrous  hero  than 
he  really  is.  For  one  must  know  that  not  always  has 
the  gaucho  been  free  from  robbery,  and  his  notions  of 


THE  ARGENTINE 


47 


ownership  of  cattle  have  been  based  largely  on  the  law 
of  might  makes  right. 

The  gaucho  lives  in  a  simple  hut  or  in  a  tent  and  de- 
spises the  life  of  the  town ;  he  is  accustomed  to  the  saddle 
from  childhood  and  cares  more  for  the  ornaments  of 
silver  in  the  reins  of  his  bridle  and  for  the  trappings  of 
his  saddle  than  for  the  finest  house.  His  eyesight  is  as 
keen  as  that  of  an  Indian;  a  cloud  of  dust,  the  flight  of 
birds,  the  lie  of  the  grass,  are  to  him  signs  of  man  or  of  an 
approaching  storm;  to  him  the  print  of  a  horse's  hoof 
is  a  subject  demanding  study,  since  it  may  show  clearly 
who  has  passed  by.  As  a  type  the  gaucho  is  most  inter- 
esting, but  his  day  has  passed  with  the  passing  of  much 
of  the  free  range,  and  like  the  cowboy  of  our  western 
plains  he  will  soon  disappear  entirely.  In  his  place 
comes  the  permanent  settler  who  owns  the  land  on  which 
he  lives,  cultivates  the  ground  for  a  living,  and  herds 
cattle  as  well  (Figs.  16,  17,  18,  and  19). 

The  Pampa  Indians. 
The  Indians  who  once 
roamed  over  the  pam- 
pas have  almost  disap- 
peared from  the  central 
Argentine.  When  the 
Spaniards  came  they 
found  several  different 
tribes  living  about  the 
borders  of  the  Rio  de 
la  Plata  and  the  grass- 
lands to  the  west  and 
southwest,  and  so 
strong  were  they  that 
for  a  long  time 
they  pre  vented  the 


Courtesy  of  Rudolph  Schevill 

FIG.  17.     Temporary  shelter  made  of 

corrugated  sheet  iron.     It  is  called  a 

"puesto,"  and  when  the  cattle  must  be 

driven  to  a  new  and  fresh  feeding 

place  the  sheet  iron  is  quickly 

taken  down  and  easily  set  up 

at  the  next  stopping  place. 

Ccchico  ranch,  Argentine 


48   SOUTH  AMERICA:  A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

whites  from  settling  the  interior.  They  were  known  as 
Pampa  Indians,  and  were  very  securely  established 
on  the  south  side  of  the  estuary  of  the  Plata.  For 
over  two  centuries  they  carried  on  marauding  expedi- 
tions against  the  outlying  ranches  from  Bahia  Blanca 
to  Cordoba.  They  plundered  and  even  killed  the  settlers, 
stealing  thousands  of  cattle  which  they  sold  in  large 
part  in  the  Chilean  towns  west  of  the  mountains.  A 
number  of  military  expeditions  were  sent  out  to  punish  and 
subdue  them,  but  without  success.  At  last,  in  1879, 
General  Roca  led  a  campaign  against  them  which  ended 
in  the  extermination  of  whole  tribes  and  in  the  driving  of 
others  into  the  remote  districts  of  northern  Patagonia. 
Since  that  time  settlements  have  been  made  in  many 
places  within  the  territory  that  the  Indians  once  controlled, 
and  there  is  no  longer  any  danger  from  them. 

The  Argentine  as  One  of  the  World's  Granaries.  The 
importance  and  prosperity  of  a  country  may  be  judged 
to  some  extent  by  the  kind  and  amount  of  goods  shipped 
out  of  it.  One  can  scarcely  think  of  Chile  without 
thinking  of  nitrate  of  soda,  of  Brazil  without  thinking  of 
rubber  and  coffee,  or  of  the  Argentine  without  thinking 
of  cattle  and  wheat.  The  Argentine  is  one  of  the  impor- 
tant wheat-exporting  countries  of  the  world,  and  in  this 
respect  may  be  classed  with  Russia,  the  United  States, 
and  India,  which  are  often  spoken  of  as  the  granaries  of 
the  world  on  account  of  the  breadstuffs  they  export  to 
the  numerous  manufacturing  peoples  of  Europe  who 
cannot  raise  enough  for  their  own  use.  About  one  ton  of 
wheat  is  raised  in  the  Argentine  for  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  the  republic.  Besides  wheat  the  Argentine 
exports  great  quantities  of  corn,  linseed,  and  beef,  all  of 
which  are  shipped  to  Europe  in  rapidly  increasing  amounts. 

A  Country  with  Few  Manufactures.    The  Argentine 


THE  ARGENTINE 


is  a  land  where  raw  materials  are  the  chief  products, 
and  where  manufactured  articles — the  machinery  for  the 


Courtesy  of  Rudolph  Schevill 

FIG.  1 8.     Permanent  shelter  on  an  Argentine  ranch 

mines,  the  clothing,  knives,  guns,  and  axes — are  chiefly 
brought  into  the  country  from  Europe  or  the  United 
States.  Manufactured  goods  are  therefore  expensive,  and 
any  one  going  to  the  Argentine  will  be  surprised  at  the 
cost  of  such  articles  as  shoes,  linens,  revolvers,  ropes, 
and  the  like.  He  will  find  them  costing  from  twenty  to 
fifty  per  cent  more  than  at  home.  A  sack  of  grain  or  a 
cow  or  a  mule,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  bought  for  less 
than  the  American  would  be  obliged  to  pay  at  home,  for 
these,  produced  in  the  country,  need  not  be  brought  in  ex- 
pensive steamers  across  thousands  of  miles  of  ocean  before 
being  offered  for  sale  in  the  markets  of  the  Argentine. 
It  is  surprising  to  one  from  America  or  England,  where 
most  of  the  manufactured  goods  are  made  at  home,  to 
find  that  nearly  everything  used  in  the  Argentine  comes 
from  abroad.  If  one  ride  on  the  railway  it  is  more 
than  likely  to  be  behind  an  American  locomotive,  and  if 


So        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

one  examine  the  manufacturer's  marks  on  the  window 
catches  of  the  coaches  or  on  the  car  wheels  he  will  find 
them  made  either  in  the  United  States  or  in  England. 
The  desks  in  the  business  offices,  the  shoes  on  the  feet 
of  the  city  dweller,  the  hat  he  wears,  the  carriage  in  which 
he  rides,  the  telephone  through  which  he  speaks  to  his 
neighbor, — all  these  have  been  made  in  France  or  Ger- 
many or  the  United  States  or  England. 

Cheap  Land  and  Expensive  Coal.     One  of  the  principal 
reasons  why  the  people  of  the  Argentine  have  had  to 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  19.     Croppers  at  work  in  one  of  the  great  wheat  fields  of 
ihe  A  rgentine  Republic 

buy  their  goods  abroad  is  that  there  is  little  coal  in  the 
country  and  in  those  places  where  most  of  the  people  live 
the  streams  have  no  falls  to  be  used  for  generating  power. 
Without  means  for  running  the  machinery  which  mills 
and  factories  require,  the  people  have  had  to  buy  their 
goods  from  those  countries  where  manufacturing  has 
developed  because  of  a  dense  population,  knowledge  of 
inventions,  and  a  large  fuel  supply.  In  the  Argentine 
there  are  not  enough  men  to  do  even  the  unskilled  work 
waiting  to  be  done.  Land  has  in  the  past  been  so  cheap 
that  the  poorest  newcomer  could  find  a  farm  if  he  only 
looked  far  enough,  or  he  could  easily  find  work  on  the 
farm  of  some  one  who  had  come  before  him.  Wheat 


THE  ARGENTINE  51 

and  cattle  could  be  raised  so  cheaply  that  it  was  easier 
to  farm  or  to  engage  in  ranching  than  to  start  a  manu- 
facturing plant,  which  requires  skilled  labor  and  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  capital.  Even  if  the  clothing  and  the 
tools  brought  from  other  countries  were  expensive,  the 
farmer  could  buy  them  if  only  the  wheat  and  the  cattle 
with  which  these  were  bought  could  be  raised  cheaply 
enough. 

One  of  the  Great  Cattle  Countries.  A  few  years  ago, 
before  frozen  meats  were  shipped  across  the  ocean,  the 
people  of  Europe  needed  more  meat;  the  people  of  the 
Argentine  had  more  than  they  could  use.  In  one  place 
meat  was  expensive;  in  the  other  it  was  going  to  waste. 
Before  the  frozen-meat  trade  began,  cattle  were  some- 
times of  more  value  for  their  hides  or  for  the  tallow  that 
could  be  obtained  from  their  carcasses  than  for  the  meat 
they  might  yield,  and  tallow  and  hides  were  therefore 
the  chief  exports  from  the  ranches.  The  experiment  of 
freezing  mutton  and  beef  and  shipping  it  in  this  condition 
to  European  ports  was  tried  with  such  success  that 
to-day  meat  in  enormous  quantities  is  shipped  in  this 
manner. 

The  first  meat-freezing  plant  in  the  Argentine  was 
established  in  1883  on  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  In  1884 
and  1886  two  other  plants  were  opened.  In  1883  only 
seventeen  thousand  frozen  sheep  carcasses  were  shipped 
out  of  the  country,  but  by  1901  the  total  had  risen  to 
nearly  three  million  sheep  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  cattle.  In  1902  two  new  companies  were 
started  and  in  the  same  year  a  new  company  began 
operations  with  chilled  meats.  By  1901  the  Argentine 
was  supplying  nearly  sixty  per  cent  of  the  meat  imports 
into  Great  Britain,  while  Australia  was  second  on  the  list 
with  twenty-one  per  cent  of  the  imports  and  New  Zealand 


52        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

third  with  nineteen  per  cent.  Attention  is  also  being 
paid  to  dairying,  so  that  to  the  meat  trade  we  must  add 
an  important  though  local  trade  in  butter,  milk,  and 
cream. 

The  attention  of  the  people  of  the  Argentine  to  the 
grazing  industry  may  also  be  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
country  contains  about  seventy  million  head  of  sheep, 
or  about  nine  head  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in 
the  republic;  about  seven  million  five  hundred  thousand 
head  of  horses,  and  nearly  thirty  million  head  of  cattle. 
What  these  figures  mean  may  be  judged  from  the  con- 
ditions in  other  countries.  Australia  is  the  only  country 
in  the  world  that  contains  more  sheep  than  the  Argentine. 
Russia  and  the  United  States  surpass  the  Argentine  in 
the  number  of  horses ;  and  these  two  countries  and  India 
likewise  exceed  the  Argentine  in  the  number  of  cattle. 
By  contrast,  the  Argentine  has  only  seven  and  a  half 


FIG.  20.  >  Straight  railway  track  on  the  flat  plains  or  pampas  of  the 

Argentine.     Railways  may  be  cheaply  built  on  these  flat 

plains.     There  are  few  cuts  or  fills,  and  no  expensive  bridges 


THE  ARGENTINE  53 

million  people,  while  the  Russian  Empire  has  a  population 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  million  and  the  United  States 
has  a  hundred  million. 

Railways  of  the  Plains.  Flat  plains  have  the  great 
advantage  of  being  easily  crossed  by  railroads,  for  there 
are  no  expensive  bridges  to  build  or  costly  rock-cuts 
to  make.  If  the  plains  are  forested  the  trees  must  be 
cut  down,  but  if  they  are  covered  with  grass  a  railway 
may  be  very  cheaply  constructed  across  them.  And  if 
there  is  enough  rainfall  to  support  great  herds  and  flocks 
and  farms  and  plantations  the  railroad  will  have  much 
business  and  both  it  and  the  farmers  and  ranchmen  it 
serves  will  be  benefited. 

This  condition,  so  near  the  ideal,  is  found  in  the  Argen- 
tine. Railways  run  by  the  most  direct  routes  from  town 
to  town  without  the  many  curves,  tunnels,  and  bridges 
that  are  required  in  a  mountainous  country.  There  is 
said  to  be  one  stretch  of  road  in  the  Argentine  that  for  two 
hundred  miles  is  without  an  important  curve  (Fig.  20). 
No  other  country  in  South  America  has  so  large  and 
serviceable  a  railroad  system.  From  Buenos  Aires,  the 
railroad  and  commercial  heart  of  the  country,  railroads 
branch  out  in  all  directions  over  the  flat  pampas  and 
reach  far  into  the  western  interior,  one  line  reaching 
Santiago  and  Valparaiso,  Chile. 

Bullock  Wagons.  Before  the  day  of  the  railroad,  men 
could  settle  out  on  the  plains  and  carry  on  farming 
only  so  far  as  goods  could  be  sent  by  bullock  wagons. 
It  was  once  no  unusual  sight  to  see  long  trains  of  slow- 
moving  wagons  strung  out  on  the  great  plains  of  the 
western  and  central  Argentine,  moving  toward  some 
spot  favorable  for  settlement.  In  each  might  be  seen  a 
family  of  three  or  four,  including  children,  and  all  the 
household  furniture,  clothing,  and  food.  At  night  a 


54        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

stop  was  made  beside  a  spring ;  the  children  would  tumble 
out  and  help  gather  brushwood;  a  roaring  fire  was  built, 
and  around  it  every  one  sat,  the  boys  piling  on  fuel,  the 
men  mending  the  yokes,  the  women  cooking  the  food. 
It  was  hard  travel,  especially  for  the  children,  and  some- 
times stops  had  to  be  made  for  the  relief  of  the  sick. 
Other  wagon  trains  carried  goods  from  Buenos  Aires  to 
the  interior.  For  a  long  time  such  important  interior 
cities  as  Tucuman,  Mendoza,  and  Cordoba  were  supplied 
in  part  by  this  "ship  of  the  pampas."  It  was  a  most 
laborious  and  costly  way  of  conducting  the  business  of 
transportation,  and  the  development  of  the  country  was 
thereby  delayed  until  the  railroads  came  and  made  it 
possible  for  settlements  to  be  established  anywhere. 

Bullock  carts  are  still  used  for  the  local  movement  of 
goods  from  farm  to  railway  or  from  farm  to  farm,  but  they 
have  nearly  gone  out  of  use  for  long-distance  traffic. 
Bullock  carts  are  curious  affairs,  unlike  anything  that 
we  know  in  this  country  except  perhaps  the  prairie 
schooner  with  its  covered  roof  and  great  wheels.  They 
are  two-wheeled  vehicles  covered  with  a  canopy  of  cloth 
to  protect  the  driver  and  his  goods.  The  large  size  of 
the  wheels  makes  it  much  easier  to  cross  streams  and 
deep  ruts.  The  driver  sits  on  the  front  of  the  cart  and 
drives  his  team  with  shouts  and  cries  and  by  the  generous 
use  of  a  whip.  In  the  old-type  wagon  a  pole  goad  was 
suspended  over  the  oxen.  It  was  so  nicely  balanced  that 
with  a  touch  of  the  hand  it  could  be  tilted  downward, 
whereupon  the  brads  on  the  end  of  it  pricked  the  oxen 
and  urged  them  forward  (Fig.  105). 

The  Railway  as  a  Pioneer.  Once  the  advantages  of 
the  railway  became  known  it  was  not  long  before  every 
important  town  and  province  in  the  republic  was  linked 
with  the  capital,  and  to-day  there  are  about  twenty 


THE  ARGENTINE  55 

thousand  miles  of  railways  in  the  country.  In  many 
cases  the  railway  was  built  into  new  country  before  there 
.were  people  in  it  and  before  ordinary  roads  were  built. 
In  this  way  it  has  often  been  the  pioneer  in  the  settlement 
of  remote  districts  and  a  means  for  the  fullest  and  most 
rapid  development.  Though  there  are  great  tracts  that 
are  still  not  reached  by  railways,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  cattle  can  be  driven  without  much  difficulty 
for  long  distances  through  free  range  to  the  railway. 
Thus  a  single  railroad  serves  as  a  means  of  outlet  for 
a  vast  country  by  enabling  the  cattle  owners  to  find  a 
shipping  point  at  the  end  of  a  drive  of  a  hundred  miles 
or  more. 

For  hundreds  of  miles  the  railway  from  Buenos  Aires 
to  Mendoza  runs  over  a  flat  pampa,  with  waving  grasses 
or  dusty  plains  stretching  out  on  all  sides.  At  last  the 
traveler  approaches  a  green  oasis  in  whose  center  lies 
Mendoza,  one  of  the  oldest,  most  picturesque,  and  now 
one  of  the  most  important  cities  of  the  interior  of 
the  Argentine,  with  tree-lined  irrigation  canals,  fertile 
gardens,  and  far-famed  vineyards. 

Beyond  Mendoza  the  railway  has  now  been  extended 
across  the  Andes  Mountains,  and  since  1911  it  has  been 
possible  to  ride  from  Buenos  Aires  to  Valparaiso  entirely 
by  rail. 

The  importance  of  this  railway  across  the  mountain 
barrier  that  has  so  long  stood  between  the  Argentine  and 
Chile  is  very  great  indeed.  It  connects  the  shores  of  two 
oceans,  the  capitals  of  two  neighboring  republics,  furnishes 
a  means  for  the  cheaper  shipment  of  cattle  from  the 
pampas  of  the  Argentine  to  the  mining  districts  of  Chile, 
and  enables  travelers  and  business  men  to  make  a  short, 
quick,  and  comfortable  journey  across  the  continent — it 
is  but  thirty-eight  hours  from  Buenos  Aires  to  Valparaiso. 


56        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  every  part  of  the  Argen- 
tine has  a  railroad,  for  the  whole  of  that  vast  region  called 


FIG.  21.     A  stream  bed  used  as  a  road  in  northwestern  Argentine. 

Laborers  are  here  removing  the  stones  and  bowlders  from  a 

narrow  trail,  and  this  is  all  the  improvement  that  is 

required  to  turn  the  graded  flood  plain  of 

the  river  into  a  graded  mountain  road 

Patagonia,  in  some  parts  of  which  railways  are  now  being 
built,  was  until  recently  without  a  single  steel  rail.  There 
are  also  vast  tracts  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  repub- 
lic which  have  no  other  means  of  shipping  goods  from 
place  to  place  than  those  afforded  for  the  past  three  or 
four  centuries — the  mule  and  the  burro  (Figs.  21  and  22). 
The  Region  of  Mines.  A  long  railway  also  runs 
northwest  to  the  mining  districts  of  La  Rioja,  Catamarca, 
and  Chilecito  in  a  section  of  the  country  more  distant 
still  from  Buenos  Aires.  Gold,  silver,  copper,  iron,  and 
nickel  are  found  here  in  abundance;  one  town,  Villa 
Argentina,  "Silver  Town,"  takes  its  name  from  its  chief 
product,  silver.  Some  years  ago  all  the  ore  from  Chilecito 


THE  ARGENTINE  57 

was  sent  on  muleback  to  Chile  across  the  deserts  and 
mountains.  Later  the  ore  was  shipped  eastward  three 
hundred  miles  in  carts,  and  later  still  a  railway  was  built 
to  the  town.  The  railway  now  offers  cheap  means  for 
carrying  freight;  and  the  region  possesses  such  rich  ore 
that  it  has  already  become  the  principal  mining  region  of 
the  Argentine. 

By  no  means  all  the  people  of  the  northwestern  part 
of  the  Argentine  are  engaged  in  mining,  for  those  who  work 
in  mines  must  be  supplied  with  food.  On  the  fertile 
plains  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  irrigation  works  have 
been  built  and  the  water  of  the  mountain  streams  turned 
out  upon  the  land.  Where  water  is  available  the  desert 
of  stones,  sand,  and  cacti  is  completely  and  almost 
magically  transformed.  Fruits  of  all  kinds  thrive,  includ- 
ing peaches,  figs,  pears,  and  grapes;  wheat,  wine,  and 
oranges  are  also  produced;  here  too  is  a  profusion  of 
flowers,  especially  roses  and  lilies. 

A  Tramway  of  Rope.  One  of  the  interesting  sights  of 
the  mining  region  is  the  rope  tramway  that  runs  between 
Chilecito  and  the  mines  at  Upulungos  in  the  Famatina 
Mountains.  The  difference  in  elevation  between  these 
two  places  is  eleven  thousand  feet,  and  the  country  is  so 
broken  that  it  was  found  too  expensive  to  build  an  ordi- 
nary railway.  The  rope  road  is  twenty-one  miles  long 
and  carries  ore  down  to  Chilecito  and  supplies  of  food 
and  machinery  up  to  the  mines.  There  are  nine  stations 
along  the  line  of  this  curious  tramway,  and  at  each  station 
the  ropes  are  anchored  so  that  the  strain  may  be  divided. 
The  ore  cars  run  on  rollers  suspended  from  the  ropes, 
and  the  weight  of  the  loaded  down-hill  cars  carries  up  the 
lighter  return  cars,  though  steam  engines  at  intervals 
along  the  line  also  help  the  movement. 

The  rope  is  suspended  from  iron  trellis  girders  from 


58       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


ten  to  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  high  and  the  spans  of 
rope  between  girders  are  from  three  hundred  to  three 


FIG.  22.     Mules  bearing  packs  of  sheepskins  from  the  mountains 
of  northwestern  Argentine  into  the  valleys 

thousand  feet  long.  The  grade  of  the  line  is  very  steep, 
in  places  as  high  as  thirty  per  cent.  Most  interesting 
of  all  is  the  fact  that  at  one  place  a  tunnel  has  been 
constructed  as  in  an  ordinary  railway,  a  tunnel  fully  a 
thousand  feet  long. 

Watchmen  ride  the  line  to  prevent  theft,  for  some- 
times a  thief  selects  a  time  when  no  one  is  near  and  with 
a  long  pole  tips  over  an  ore  bucket.  On  one  occasion 
when  it  was  suspected  that  a  thief  was  about  to  steal 
ore  a  watchman  curled  himself  up  in  a  bucket  and  rode 
down  the  line.  Instead  of  rich  ore  the  thief  tipped  out 
a  man,  who  lost  no  time  in  handing  the  thief  over  to  the 
soldier  policemen  camped  at  the  mine. 

A  Coach  Trip  in  the  Argentine.  To  reach  places  at  a 
distance  from  the  railroad  one  may  ride  muleback  or 
occupy  a  seat  in  a  coach.  A  coach  trip  is  very  interesting 
to  one  who  has  never  before  traveled  in  this  way.  The 


THE  ARGENTINE  50 

coach  is  a  huge  covered  wagon,  very  much  like  the  old 
coaches  our  grandfathers  used  to  ride  in  before  the  days 
of  the  railroad.  It  will  carry  from  twelve  to  fourteen 
people,  who  are  crowded  three  in  a  seat.  Early  in  the 
morning,  before  it  is  yet  light,  the  coach  is  prepared,  the 
baggage  is  strapped  behind  and  on  the  roof,  and  eight 
mules  are  hitched  up  in  four  pairs.  The  driver,  grasping 
the  heavy  reins,  shouts  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  stable 
boys  throw  stones  or  clods  at  the  mules  and  whip  them 
unmercifully,  and  away  go  the  mules  at  a  breakneck 
speed.  They  gallop  along  mile  after  mile,  sometimes 
turning  about  the  curves  of  a  mountain  road  almost  on 
the  edge  of  a  precipice,  to  the  shrieks  of  the  women  and 
the  consternation  of  the  men. 

By  and  by  the  coach  arrives  at  the  posthouse,  where 
a  stop  is  made  for  breakfast  and  for  a  change  of  mules. 
Four  or  five  stops  like  this  are  made  each  day;  and,  by 
using  between  thirty  and  forty  mules,  fifty  or  sixty  miles 
may  be  covered  between  sunrise  and  sunset,  even  when 
the  country  is  rough  and  the  roads  crooked  and  steep, 
while  on  the  pampas  the  distance  may  be  seventy  or 
eighty  miles. 

The  Dry  Basin  Region.  In  northwestern  Argentine  is 
the  highest  and  coldest  part  of  the  country  outside  the 
Patagonian  Andes.  Two  great  mountain  chains  here  in- 
close a  lofty  plateau  known  as  the  Puna  de  Atacama. 
Volcanoes  and  lava  flows  cover  a  large  part  of  it,  and 
between  them  are  basins  containing  salt  and  borax. 
Springs  are  rare,  and  as  a  rule  the  streams  do  not  flow  the 
whole  year  round.  Some  of  the  lakes  shown  on  maps  as 
occupying  the  lowest  places  in  the  basins  are  not  lakes  at 
all  except  in  the  wet  season.  In  the  dry  winter  season 
they  are  either  covered  with  fine  grasses  and  rushes,  or  with 
clay,  salt,  magnesia,  or  borax.  For  example,  the  Laguna 


60        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

del  Portezuelo,  shown  on  some  maps  as  a  lake  sixty 
to  seventy  miles-  long  and  eighteen  to  twenty  miles 
wide,  is  in  winter  a  feeding  ground  for  sheep  and  llamas, 
and  one  may  ride  across  it  from  end  t~>  end.  A  few 
scattered  houses  have  been  built  above  the  high-water 
mark  of  the  wet  season,  but  the  dwellers  have  a  hard 
time  finding  enough  water  for  their  domestic  needs. 
The  same  winter  dryness  prevails  farther  south.  The 


FIG.  23.     Pastoral  nomads  with  flock  of  sheep  and  goatt 
border  of  the  desert  of  Atacama 


on  the  eastern 


Laguna  de  Guatayoc  and  other  lakes  are  really  grassy 
plains  in  the  dry  season,  except  for  a  central  area  where 
salt  deposits  take  the  place  of  the  grasses.  Some  of 
these  immense  salty  plains  look  very  much  like  great 
inland  seas.  The  mirage  is  almost  always  to  be  seen  at 
midday;  troops  of  vicuna  appear  to  be  standing  up  to 
their  knees  in  water  when  they  are  really  feeding  on  the 
grasses;  mounds  on  the  plain  appear  turned  upside 
down;  and  a  sand  drift  looks  like  a  shimmering  pool. 

The  Llama  Herders.     Here  and  there  in  the  north- 
western basins  of  the  Argentine  one  comes  upon  a  native 


THE  ARGENTINE  61 

hut,  a  wretched  thing  of  mud  and  grass,  less  than  twelve 
feet  square  and  six  feet  high.  The  dependence  of  the 
people  upon  the  llama  is  seen  in  the  corral  which  is  always 
built  near  the  hut  and  in  which  the  llamas  are  herded 
every  night  for  fear  of  the  puma  that  makes  his  home 
in  the  mountains  near  by.  The  llamas  feed  upon  the 
coarse,  spiny,  rushlike  grasses  as  well  as  on  the  finer 
grasses  mixed  with  them.  Llamas  and  sheep  form  the 
chief  food  of  the  people  as  well  as  their  source  of  cloth- 
ing to  protect  them  from  the  winter  cold  of  the  plateau. 
The  highest  pastures  are  used  only  in  summer.  When 
the  winter  cold  comes  on  the  shepherds  leave  their 
temporary  huts  and  drive  their  flocks  down  to  the  lower 
valleys  (Fig.  23).  They  are  therefore  migratory  shep- 
herds, though  none  of  them  are  true  nomads  since  they 
have  fixed  homes  for  both  seasons  of  the  year. 

The  constant  tending  of  their  flocks  and  the  immense 
amount  of  walking  this  makes  necessary  have  made  the 
Indian  herders  great  walkers  and  runners;  their  speed 
and  endurance  are  truly  marvelous.  A  man  will  take  a 
message  two  hundred  miles  and  back  in  six  days  for 
about  thirty-five  cents  a  day  and  provide  his  own  food. 
Once  a  man  carried  a  telegram  forty  miles  to  the  station, 
received  an  answer,  and  brought  it  back,  eighty  miles 
in  all,  in  eighteen  hours,  for  the  trifling  sum  of  eighty 
cents.  Even  children  are  excellent  walkers  and  have 
great  endurance.  They  learn  to  tend  the  flocks  almost 
from  babyhood,  and  not  uncommonly  one  may  see  a 
tiny  lad  of  four  years  herding  a  flock  of  big  llamas. 

Buenos  Aires.  We  have  only  three  cities  in  the  United 
States  that  are  larger  than  Buenos  Aires.  A  remarkably 
large  portion  of  all  the  people  of  the  country,  about  one 
fifth,  live  in  the  capital  city.  None  of  the  other  cities 
even  approach  this  one  in  size.  Indeed,  if  we  should  put 


62        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

together  all  the  other  cities  of  the  Argentine  that  contain 
more  than  six  thousand  people  we  would  have  a  city 
only  from  one  half  to  two  thirds  the  size  of  Buenos  Aires. 

The  gathering  of  so  many  people  into  a  single  town  is 
usually  deplored  by  those  who  believe  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  a  country  should  live  on  the  land.  While  it 
is  in  part  true  that  the  policy  of  landowners  to  live  in  the 
city  and  leave  the  management  of  their  great  estates  to 
superintendents  does  not  favor  the  best  use  of  the  land, 
there  is  an  advantage  in  the  unusual  growth  of  the  city 
population.  The  close  association  of  so  many  people  has 
stimulated  the  growth  of  the  national  spirit  to  a  degree 
far  beyond  that  which  the  people  would  otherwise  have 
developed.  The  Argentines  have  become  proud  of  their 
chief  city  and  willingly  endure  heavy  taxes  that  it  may 
be  made  beautiful,  healthful,  and  comfortable.  A  great 
city  will  support  good  newspapers,  theaters,  arid  public 
buildings,  wide,  clean  streets,  comfortable  street  cars,  and 
electric  lights. 

These  are  the  signs  of  civilization,  to  be  sure,  and  not 
the  substance  of  it,  but  in  the  enjoyment  of  these  things 
the  Argentine  has  become  broader  minded,  his  ingenu- 
ity has  been  stimulated,  and  he  has  been  taught  to  regard 
his  country  as  one  with  great  opportunities  and  with  a 
great  future.  The  army  and  navy  maneuvers  are  the 
delight  of  thousands  of  sight-seers,  and  pride  has  been 
created  in  the  military  branch  of  the  government. 
Buenos  Aires  has  in  this  manner  become  a  force  that 
is  felt  all  over  the  country  and  without  which  the  seven 
and  a  half  millions  of  Argentines  would  not  form  the 
strong  nation  that  they  are  to-day. 

Buildings  and  People.  There  is  in  the  city  of  Buenos 
Aires  none  of  the  natural  beauty  that  forms  so  large 
a  part  of  the  attraction  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  (p.  230)  or 


THE  ARGENTINE  63 

La  Paz  (p.  152).  There  are  no  encircling  mountains,  no 
island-studded  bays,  no  charm  of  tropical  vegetation. 
The  city  is  laid  out  in  a  monotonous  chessboard  fashion 
on  a  level  plain  fronted  by  the  wide  La  Plata  estuary, 
like  Chicago  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  The 
attractiveness  of  the  city  lies  partly  in  the  cleanness  of 
its  wide  streets,  the  beauty  and  size  of  its  great  public 
buildings,  its  parks,  and  in  its  business  facilities.  One 
of  the  interesting  places  of  the  great  city  is  the  water 
front,  where  the  ships  of  many  nations  come  for  flour 
and  wheat,  cattle  and  sheep  (Fig.  24).  The  Mercado 
Central  de  Frutos  (Fig.  25)  is  the  largest  wholesale  pro- 
duce market  in  the  world.  Palermo  Park,  one  of  the 
seventy-two  parks  in  the  city,  has  running  streams, 
pretty  lakes,  and  long  avenues  of  beautiful  palms. 

Like  many  other  South  American  cities  Buenos  Aires  has 
large  numbers  of  foreigners.  It  is  said  that  there  are  more 
Italians  in  Buenos  Aires  than  there  are  native-born 
Argentines.  And  there  are  at  least  a  hundred  thousand 


FIG.  24.     One  of  the  b-nsins  in  the  harbor  of  Buenos  Aires.     So  crowded 

is  the  shipping  that  vessels  are  often  required  to  lie  three  or  four 

deep  on  the  borders  of  the  artificial  basins, 


64       SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Spaniards.     Nearly  every  principal  tongue  is  spoken  and 
each  language  has  its  newspapers.     It  is  a  curious  fact 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  25.    A  scene  in  the  Central  Market,  Buenos  Aires 

that  the  largest  Spanish-speaking  city  in  the  world 
should  be  located  not  in  Spain  but  in  America.  Buenos 
Aires  is  almost  twice  as  large  as  its  nearest  rival,  Madrid, 
though  it  should  be  remembered  that  of  this  population 
there  are  people  of  many  nationalities  other  than  Spanish. 
The  Lights  and  Buoys  of  the  River  Port.  The  port 
of  Buenos  Aires  has  many  disadvantages  in  spite  of  the 
vast  anchorage  grounds  which  the  wide  estuary  affords. 
The  so-called  Rio  de  la  Plata  is  really  an  immense  shoal 
estuary  and  the  depositing  ground  of  the  great  Parana 
River  (Fig.  26),  which  annually  sends  to  the  sea  nearly 
fifty  per  cent  more  water  than  the  Mississippi.  So  much 
sediment  is  constantly  carried  down  this  great  river  that 
the  delta  of  the  Parana  is  rapidly  advancing  into  the  La 
Plata  estuary  and  in  time  will  fill  it  completely  unless  a 
better  means  is  discovered  for  disposing  of  the  sediment. 


THE  ARGENTINE  65 

Remarkable  changes  are  shown  in  the  position  of  the 
forty-mile  front  of  this  delta  on  the  ninety-two  different 
maps  of  it  dating  from  1529  to  1885. 

The  government  has  been  working  for  many  years  to 
improve  the  estuary  for  navigation  and  to  accommodate 
the  constantly  increasing  size  of  the  merchant  ships. 
Luminous  buoys  have  been  placed  in  the  river  all  the 
way  from  Buenos  Aires  to  the  mouths  of  the  Parana, 
the  Bravo,  and  the  Iguassu  rivers.  A  floating  semaphore, 
an  instrument  that  tells  the  navigator  the  depth  of 
water  in  the  channel  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  has 
also  been  installed  for  the  benefit  of  navigation.  So 
important  is  a  knowledge  of  the  height  of  the  water  in 
the  rivers  tributary  to  the  La  Plata  that  the  Argentine 
government  surveys  them  constantly  and  every  year 
makes  new  maps  for  the  river  pilots.  The  government 
each  week  makes  a  forecast  of  the  depth  of  water  in  the 
various  channels  based  on  the  study  of  gauges  that 
record  the  height  of  the  water,  and  all  the  stations  are 
connected  by  telegraph. 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boy( 

FIG.  26.     Scene  on  the  Parana  River 


66        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Sometimes  the  shifting  rivers  play  queer  tricks  with 
the  work  of  man,  as  in  the  case  of  the  ditch  of  a  market 
gardener  some  thirty  years  ago,  opposite  Ibicuy  River. 
The  ditch  had  been  dug  so  that  the  gardener  might  take 
his  canoe  by  a  shorter  course  to  the  main  channel,  but 
when  the  next  flood  came  the  river  overran  the  ditch 
and  deepened  it  to  a  channel,  and  now  ocean  steamers 
pass  through  the  "Canal  del  Mercador,"  or  the  "  canal - 
of  the  merchant,"  on  their  way  down  from  Rosario. 

It  was  in  1885  that  the  government  first  began  the 
construction  of  docks  at  Buenos  Aires.  Before  that  time 
all  the  business  was  done  from  an  anchorage  about 
twelve  miles  from  the  city.  Passengers  and  goods  were 
transferred  from  ships  to  lighters  and  from  lighters  to 
small  boats  and  finally  to  great  wheel  carts  that  went 
out  long  distances  from  shore.  The  north  channel 
which  leads  to  the  docks  that  now  front  the  city  is  five 
and  a  half  miles  long,  three  hundred  and  thirty  feet  wide, 
and  at  low  tide  allows  vessels  having  a  draft  of  twenty- 
one  feet  to  enter.  When  the  tide  is  high  (the  tidal  range 
is  only  a  few  feet  at  Buenos  Aires)  vessels  drawing  twenty- 
seven  feet  of  water  may  enter.  There  are  only  twelve 
ports  in  the  world  having  a  greater  tonnage  than  that 
at  Buenos  Aires,  and  none  of  them  has  had  such  an 
extraordinary  growth  in  so  short  a  time  (Fig.  24). 

Other  Ports  of  the  Argentine.  A  large  part  of  the 
business  of  the  Argentine  is  transacted  outside  of  Buenos 
Aires  in  spite  of  the  exceptional  size  of  that  city.  Among 
the  ports  of  the  republic,  Rosario  is  second  and  is  the 
outlet  for  a  wide  area  of  rich  grain-producing  country 
in  the  province  of  Santa  Fe.  The  port  is  located  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Parana  and  has  the  advantage  of  a 
deep-water  channel  to  the  edge  of  the  high  bank  that 
there  overlooks  the  river.  The  elevated  position  of  the 


THE  ARGENTINE 


67 


city  enables  the  easy  loading  of  grain  vessels,  the  chutes 
of  the  elevators  down  which  the  grain  slides  by  gravity 
connecting  directly  with  the  holds  of  the  grain  ships. 
Expensive  port  works,  including  docks,  warehouses,  and 
elevators,  have  also  been  constructed.  With  the  improve- 
ment, of  the  river  so  that  its  channels  shall  be  wider  and 
more  stable  the  port  of  Rosario  has  a  still  greater  future 
(Fig.  27).  Though  located  far  up  the  Parana,  it  receives 
ocean-going  vessels -and  thus  saves  the  high  cost  of  a  long 
haul  by  freight  train.  The  chief  exports  are  corn  and 
wheat,  for  which  the  position  of  the  port  is  admirably 
adapted.  Among  the  other  exports  are  metals  from 
the  mines  of  the  north,  hides  from  the  pastures  of  the 


Courtesy  of  Rudolph  S-hevill 

FIG.  27.     Dredging  a  channel  in  the  Parana  River  near  Rosarir. 

The  constant  shifting  of  the  sand  bars  makes  it  necessary  to  dredge  the 

ship  channels  almost  constantly  so  that  navigable  channels  may  be 

maintained.     Note  the  low,  flat  banks  in  the  distance.     These 

are  characteristic  of  the  Parana  and  the  Paraguay 


68       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Paraguay,  and  alfalfa  from  the  grasslands  west  of  the 
city.      German,    Swiss,    and    Italian    immigrants    have 


Courtesy  ot  \V.  D.  Boyee 

FIG.  28.     Bird's-eye  view  of  Parana,  Argentine  Republic 

founded  settlements  in  the  country  roundabout  and  have 
built  permanent  homes. 

Below  Rosario  are  other  cities  of  growing  importance, 
such  as  Villa  Constitucion,  San  Nicolas,  Zarate,  Campana, 
and  San  Pedro,  while  above  Rosario  are  the  ports  of 
Diamante,  Santa  Fe,  Colastine,  Corrientes,  and  Parana 
(Figs.  28  and  29). 

The  New  Harbor  at  Bahia  Blanca.  On  the  bay  of 
Bahia  Blanca,  where  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  Argentine 
makes  a  great  curve  to  the  west,  is  the  harbor  and  city 
of  Bahia  Blanca  (White  Bay).  For  a  long  time  this 
town  was  of  little  importance,  but  it  has  recently  become 
a  center  of  commercial  interest,  partly  on  account  of  the 
crowded  condition  of  the  port  of  Buenos  Aires,  partly 
also  because  of  the  improvement  of  the  port  of  Bahia 
Blanca  and  the  development  of  the  surrounding  country. 
Argentines  are  fond  of  speaking  of  it  as  the  Liverpool 
of  the  south,  though  this  name  it  bears  more  because  of 
its  future  than  because  of  its  present  commerce.  But  a 


THE  ARGENTINE 


69 


future  it  will  certainly  have,  for  the  Argentine  coast  has 
only  a  few  really  good  natural  ports,  and  among  these 
Bahia  Blanca  ranks  high.  The  harbor  possesses  spacious 
accommodation  for  the  largest  ships  and  an  entrance  so 
narrow  as  to  be  easily  defended  in  case  of  war.  The 
railway  systems  are  being  put  into  better  connection  with 
Bahia  Blanca  and  have  already  turned  in  that  direction 
a  great  deal  of  commerce  from  a  region  which  was  once 
tributary  to  Buenos  Aires. 

A  Seacoast  Country  without  a  Fishing  Fleet.  With 
all  its  long  stretch  of  Atlantic  coast,  the  Argentine  has 
not  a  single  important  fishing  station.  In  some  places 
the  reason  for  this  condition  "is  easy  to  see,  as  on  the 
coast  of  Patagonia,  where  the  tides  are  so  high  that  fish- 
ing operations  would  have  to  be  carried  on  under  extreme 
difficulties,  though  this  will  not  explain  the  condition 
everywhere.  There  are  excellent  fish  in  the  sea  and  a 
ready  market  for  them  in  the  coast  towns,  but  a  race  of 
fishermen  has  not  yet  been  produced  nor  are  the  new 
settlers  fisherfolk. 

The  lack  of  a  fishing  people  in  the  Argentine  Republic 
is  felt  in  the  development  of  the  navy,  whose  sailors  are 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FiG.  29.     General  view  of  Corrientes,  Argentine  Republic 


70        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

not  drawn  largely  from  fishing  districts,  as  in  other  coun- 
tries, but  from  the  army,  the  National  Guard.  New  and 
cheap  land  close  to  good  markets  has  been  so  easily 
obtained  by  the  incoming  settler  that  he  has  found  no 
attraction  in  fishing. 

The  Flooded  River  Country.  The  two  great  eastern 
streams,  the  Parana  and  the  Paraguay,  are  of  much 
importance  to  the  people  of  the  region  they  drain  and 
are  the  only  natural  highways  of  travel  and  trade.  In 
their  lower  courses  both  rivers  have  a  very  uncertain 
behavior.  The  Paraguay  is  especially  unreliable.  For 
the  most  part  it  runs  in  an  alluvial  bottom  as  wide  as 
the  English  Channel.  In  the  season  of  flood  all  the 
bottom  land  is  submerged,  cut-offs  occur,  sand  banks 
form  and  reform,  and  the  whole  course  of  the  main  stream 
may  be  found  to  have  been  changed  when  the  floods 
subside.  During  the  season  of  high  water,  which  is  three 
months  of  the  year,  the  river  country  is  so  completely 
flooded  that  only  groves  of  trees  stand  as  islands  above  the 
swamps  and  lakes  that  border  the  main  stream.  Down 
this  ever-changing  channel  the  trade  of  the  Chaco  of 
Bolivia  must  find  its  way,  and,  capricious  as  the  river  is, 
it  enables  man  to  enter  the  country  by  boats  for  more 
than  two  thousand  miles  above  Buenos  Aires. 

The  Grasslands  of  the  Parana  Valley.  While  a  large 
part  of  the  Parana  region  is  tropic  forest,  there  are  also 
vast  savannas  where  the  richest  pastures  are  to  be  found. 
•These  lie  between  the  open  flats  of  the  Paraguay  River 
and  the  forested  valleys  of  the  upper  Parana.  They 
commence  in  scattered  pastures  upon  the  hills  of  central 
Paraguay  and  run  in  widening  extent  northward  along 
the  Maracayu  to  Cuyaba,  where  they  merge  with  the 
grasslands  of  the  sandstone  plateau  of  Matto  Grosso 
that  forms  a  part  of  the  great  interior  plateau  of  Brazil. 


THE  ARGENTINE  71 

The  upland  pastures  afford  grazing  for  live  stock  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  year,  but  in  the  dry  summer 
months  the  flocks  and  herds  must  be  driven  down  to  the 
lowlands,  where  they  feed  upon  the  young  tussock  grass 
and  wild  grain. 

The  unoccupied  grazing  lands  of  Matto  Grosso  and 
Goyaz  alone  cover  an  area  as  large  as  the  state  of  Texas 
and  possess  a  grazing  value  fully  equal  to  that  of  Texas. 
The  value  of  the  grazing  lands  accessible  to  the  markets 
that  use  cattle  for  the  frozen-meat  and  jerked-beef  trade 
has  risen  in  recent  years  because  of  the  rise  in  the  price 
of  cattle.  There  is  in  consequence  a  steady  stream  of 
squatters  passing  northward  by  way  of  lower  Misiones 
and  Paraguay.  They  drive  troops  of  mares,  mules,  and 
horses,  and  carry  their  household  goods  and  women. 
At  Posadas  they  pass  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  a 
month.  They  come  from  the  regions  farther  down  the 
valleys  where  for  many  years  they  were  permitted  to 
"squat,"  that  is,  use  the  land  without  really  owning  it  or 
paying  taxes  or  rent  to  any  one,  but  from  which  they  were 
obliged  to  move  because  the  real  owners  of  the  land  no 
longer  allowed  /them  on  it.  The  owners  of  the  lands 
whence  the  squatters  are  being  driven  have  found  their 
land  suddenly  valuable  because  of  the  steadily  growing 
importance  of  the  frozen-  and  chilled-meat  industry  in 
the  Argentine  and  Uruguay. 

Thus,  remote  as  these  grasslands  are  from  the  sea, 
they  are  after  all  far  more  valuable  than  the  forest  lands 
of  the  upper  Parana  which  lie  milch  nearer  the  sea,  for 
man  can  travel  about  in  grasslands,  can  produce  cattle 
upon  which  to  depend  for  food  and  money,  and  find 
a  climate  far  more  healthful  than  in  the  damp  forests. 
Even  the  wood  of  the  grasslands  is  more  easily  obtained 
than  that  of  the  forest  where  it  grows  in  such  abundance. 


72        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

The  scattered  groves  and  belts  of  timber  along  the  water 
courses  are  easily  reached  and  the  timber  may  be  taken 
over  an  easy  route  as  compared  with  the  difficulty  of 
carting  it  through  a  jungle.  With  railways  and  wagon 
roads  the  lands  most  available  for  colonization  are  those 
located  along  the  fringe  where  the  forest  ends  and  the 
plains  begin,  for  here  are  both  timber  and  pasture,  as 
well  as  a  climate  that  makes  diversified  farming  possible. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE 

The  Yankees  of  South  America.  The  people  of 
central  Chile  live  in  the  cool  zone  of  South  America  where 
the  climate  is  pleasant  (Plate  III).  It  is  neither  so  hot  as 
to  weaken  a  man  through  disease  nor  so  cold  as  to  require 
all  his  energy  to  procure  a  food  supply.  The  effect  of 
these  climatic  conditions  has  been  to  make  the  people  of 
central  Chile  very  energetic.  In  spite  of  its  small  size 
Chile  is  one  of  the  most  important  countries  of  South 
America.  Its  army  and  navy  are  the  pride  of  every 
Chilean  and  compare  very  well  with  an  equal  number  of 
the  armed  forces  of  Germany  or  the  United  States.  The 
beautiful  Chilean  horses  are  as  good  as  may  be  found 
anywhere  and  give  the  cavalry  a  fine  appearance  on  the 
Sunday  parades  that  are  held  throughout  the  year.  In 
the  war  with  Peru  in  1879-1883,  Chile  quickly  overcame 
the  small  Peruvian  navy,  defeated  one  army  after  another, 
and  at  last  took  Lima  and  held  it  until  the  end  of  the 
war.  To  see  a  battalion  of  the  Chilean  army  go  marching 
down  the  streets  of  Santiago  is  to  see  one  of  the  finest 
military  sights  in  South  America.  A  troop  of  cavalry  in 
Chile  is  able  to  parade  or  fight  with  much  the  same  vigor 
and  success  as  a  troop  of  the  emperor's  guard  in  the  days 
of  Napoleon  or  von  Moltke. 

The  energy  of  the  Chileans  is  shown  in  many  other 
ways  than  those  relating  to  the  army  and  navy.  The 
industry  and  ingenuity  of  the  people  are  exhibited  in  their 
schools  and  colleges,  their  railroads  and  wagon  roads,  their 
streets  and  parks  (Fig.  30),  their  everyday  business,  and 
their  relations  with  their  neighbors.  The  Chileans  are  well 
aware  of  their  own  progressive  qualities  and  are  so  proud 

73 


74        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

of  them  that  they  call  themselves  the  Yankees  of  South 
America.    To  them  the  word  ' '  Yankee' '  means  a  person  of 


FIG.  30.     Central  plaza,  at  Copiapo,  Chile 

energy  and  ingenuity,  and,  as  they  use  the  word,  it  also 
means  a  wide-awake  citizen  of  the  United  States.  They 
admire  the  way  in  which  the  United  States  has  pros- 
pered; the  energy  that  we  display  has  always  been  a 
matter  of  interest  in  South  American  countries. 

A  Long,  Narrow  Country.  A  more  peculiar- Distribution 
of  national  land  cannot  be  found  than  that  in  Chile. 
Think  of  a  country  so  long  that  if  one  end  of  it  were  placed 
upon  New  Orleans  the  other  end  would  reach  the  Arctic 
Circle,  and  yet  so  narrow  that  one  could  cross  it  in  a 
few  days  on  foot.  The  widest  place  is  at  the  Strait  of 
Magellan,  where  it  is  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from 
east  to  west;  the  narrowest  part  is  near  Hanover  Island, 
>where  it  measures  but  sixty  miles  across.  The  total  area 
of  Chile  is  three  times  that  of  Illinois  and  Indiana,  but 
the  length  of  the  country  is  equal  to  the  distance 
from  Alaska  to  southern  Mexico.  Its  shape  and  size 
have  been  determined  partly  by  war  and  conquest  but 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE  75 

more  largely  by  its  position  on  a  narrow  strip  of  country 
between  the  lofty  Andes  Mountains  and  the  sea.  Lofty 
mountains  are  difficult  to  pass.  People  visit  them  for 
the  grand  scenery  they  display,  but  few  live  in  them,  as 
a  rule,  for,  if  we  except  mineral  deposits,  thin  pastures, 
and  possibly  a  little  timber,  they  are  without  resources  to 
attract  men. 

The  Andes  Mountains  that  confine  Chile  to  the  seacoast 
are  among  the  few  really  lofty  highlands  of  the  world. 
Aconcagua  is  perhaps  the  loftiest  mountain  in  the  western 
hemisphere.  Its  peak  reaches  up  into  the  region  of 
eternal  snows,  attaining  an  altitude  of  over  twenty-three 
thousand  feet.  Aconcagua  lies  on  the  boundary  between 
Chile  and  the  Argentine.  North  and  south  of  it  are 
ranges  and  groups  of  lofty  volcanic  peaks  whose  bare, 
cold  surfaces  repel  the  settler  and  the  traveler  alike.  A 
vacant  region  such  as  this  is  an  ideal  boundary  between 
nations.  There  are  as  a  rule  no  close  neighbors  whose 
rights  or  quarrels  may  bring  two  governments  into 
dispute  and  possibly  into  war  with  each  other.  Neither 
are  there  likely  to  be  natural  sources  of  wealth  to  cause 
difficulty,  ly 

Yet  Chile  and  the  Argentine  have  in  the  past  had  several 
serious  arguments  and  threatened  wars  over  boundary 
claims.  The  boundary  treaty  between  the  two  republics 
says  that  the  boundary  south  of  the  4oth  parallel  must 
follow  the  principal  peaks  and  divides  between  the  east- 
and  west-flowing  streams.  These  are,  however,  so 
irregular  that  the  words  of  the  treaty  are  not  always  easy 
to  apply.  Some  of  the  Chilean  rivers  have  cut  clear 
through  the  mountain  range  and  now  head  on  the  plains 
east  of  the  mountains,  a  region  that  the  Argentine  has 
always  claimed.  The  trouble  became  acute  a  few  years 
ago,  and  both  sides  prepared  for  war.  Fleets  were 


76        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

made  ready,  soldiers  drilled,  and  both  nations  became 
very  much  inflamed  by  warlike  speeches.  At  last  better 
counsels  prevailed.  Surveyors  were  employed  to  study 
the  country  thoroughly,  and  the  King  of  England  decided 
the  case  on  the  basis  of  the  survey.  Both  sides  accepted 
his  award,  and  to  commemorate  the  peaceful  settlement 
there  was  raised  on  the  divide  between  Chile  and  the 
Argentine  a  colossal  statue  of  the  Christ.  It  was  cast  from 
old  Spanish  cannon  left  there  about  eighty  years  before. 
On  it  is  this  inscription:  "Sooner  shall  these  mountains 
crumble  into  dust  than  Chileans  and  Argentines  shall 
break  this  peace  which  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  the  Redeemer, 
they  have  sworn  to  maintain"  (Fig.  31), 
The  Valley  of  Paradise.  The  Spaniards  explored  the 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  31.     "  Christ  of  the  Andes.11     Monument  erected  on  the  boundary 
line   between    Chile   and   the  Argentine   Republic,   after  a 
boundary   quarrel   that   once   threatened   war 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE  77 

desert  coast  of  northern  Chile  in  ships  built  at  Panama — 
tiny  caravels  which,  beside  the  ocean  liners  of  to-day, 
would  look  like  the  boats  of  children.  They  coasted 
-southward,  hundreds  of  miles,  and  for  most  of  the  way 
were  in  sight  of  a  stern  desert  coast.  At  last  they  came 
to  the  end  of  the  desert.  They  had  reached  the  northern 
edge  of  the  belt  of  westerly  winds  in  Chile  where  the 
more  constant  rains  support  a  covering  of  green  vege- 
tation. So  overjoyed  were  they  at  finding  themselves 
once  more  in  a  land  of  trees  and  green  grass  that  their 
enthusiasm  was  intense,  especially  when  they  reached 
the  first  green  valley,  which  they  called  the  "Valley  of 
Paradise,"  or  as  it  is  spelled  in  Spanish,  "Valparaiso," 
to-day  the  greatest  commercial  port  of  Chile  (Fig.  32). 

The  Fertile  Valley  of  Central  Chile.  The  land  beyond 
the  desert  which  so  delighted  the  eyes  of  the  early  Span- 
ish explorers  is  now  often  known  as  southern  Chile. 
Strictly  speaking,  it  should  be  called  central  Chile,  and 
such  we  shall  designate  it  here,  for  the  real  southern  end 
of  Chile  is  composed  of  islands  and  peninsulas  without 
number,  and  although  it  is  wooded  and  has  an  abundant 
vegetation  it  has  actually  fewer  people  to-day  than  has 
an  equal  area  of  the  desert  of  Atacama  in  northern  Chile. 

Central  Chile  is  wholly  different  from  the  northern  and 
southern  extremities  of  the  country  since  it  lies  between 
the  two  extremes  of  heat  and  aridity  on  the  one  hand  and 
cold  and  heavy  rainfall  on  the  other.  This  seems  indeed 
a  "valley  of  Paradise"  when  its  mild  climate,  fertile  soil, 
and  refreshing  rains  are  compared  with  the  harsh  conditions 
one  finds  in  the  regions  on  the  north  and  the  south. 
This  is  the  part  of  the  country  that  attracted  the  earliest 
settlers,  and  here  we  find  the  great  majority  of  Chileans 
to-day.  Although  central  Chile  embraces  but  one  fifth 
of  the  entire  country,  it  contains  four  fifths  of  the  people. 


78        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

There  is  but  one  inhabitant  to  every  two  square  miles 
of  country  in  northern  desert  Chile,  and  less  than  that 
number  in  the  south,  but  there  are  seventeen  to  each 
square  mile  in  the  central  section. 

In  the  central  section  of  Chile  are  almost  all  of  the 
schools,  colleges,  and  universities  of  the  nation,  the 
great  cities  and  railways,  and  many  of  the  ports  and 
manufacturing  plants  (Fig.  33) .  This  is  also  the  land  of  the 
gardener,  the  farmer,  and  the  herder.  In  this  section  are 
produced  a  large  part  of  the  grain  and  hay  shipped  north 
for  the  animals  employed  in  the  mines  and  the  nitrate 
fields  of  the  desert.  Here  are  raised  the  animals  which 
are  purchased  in  great  numbers  and  shipped  north,  the 
cattle  for  meat  and  the  horses  for  draft  animals.  Wheat 
and  corn  are  produced  in  great  quantities,  and  steel  and 
flour  mills  have  been  built. 

Upon  the  mountain  sides  where  the  land  is  too  steep 
for  cultivation,  and  the  soil  too  thin,  are  pastured  great 


FIG.  32.     Monument  to  Prat  y  Bahia,   Valparaiso,  Chile 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE 


79 


droves  of  sheep  and  herds  of  cattle.     It  is  here  that  we 
find  the  ranchmen  of  Chile.     Their  flocks  and  herds  go 


FIG.  33.     Street  scene  in  central  Chile 

far  up  into  the  mountains  in  summer,  when  the  lower 
pastures  are  withered  or  scanty,  to  graze  on  the  short 
rich  grasses  nourished  by  the  winter  rains  and  snows;  in 
the  winter  time  they  are  driven  down  into  the  valleys. 
Some  are  slaughtered  for  food,  others  are  shipped  into 
regions  where  cattle  are  not  kept,  still  others  supply 
milk,  butter,  and  cheese  in  very  limited  quantities  to 
their  owners,  or  to  the  people  of  the  towns. 

Central  Chile  also  produces  large  quantities  of  wine, 
and  the  lands  which  support  this  industry  are  of  great 
extent.  In  the  central  valley  south  of  Santiago  there  are 
miles  upon  miles  of  vineyards  (Fig.  34).  During  the 
grape-gathering  season  the  vineyards  are  dotted  with  grape 
pickers.  It  is  the  busiest  and  happiest  season  of  the  year, 
with  singing  and  dancing  every  evening.  The  harvest 
gathered,  the  manufacture  of  the  wine  begins.  It  is 


8o       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

made  in  almost  numberless  varieties,  stored  in  bottles  and 
casks  and  prepared  for  shipment.    All  Spanish-speaking 


FIG.  34.     Vineyard  in  central  Chile 

peoples  are  addicted  to  the  use  of  wine,  the  most  com- 
mon of  the  social  beverages.  Its  universal  use  means  the 
support  of  the  wine  industry  not  only  of  Chile  but  of  the 
Argentine  as  well,  and  in  addition  great  quantities  of  it 
are  imported  from  California,  Peru,  France,  and  Italy. 

The  Scenery  of  Southern  Chile.  In  clear  weather 
the  southern  end  of  Chile  is  the  most  picturesque  part 
of  the  entire  country.  Lofty  mountains  border  a  steep, 
irregular  shore.  At  the  extreme  southern  end  of  the  region 
it  is  so  cold  that  there  are  numerous  snow  fields  feeding 
glaciers  that  in  places  extend  far  down  the  mountain 
valleys  and  even  to  the  sea.  At  the  Strait  of  Magellan, 
which  belongs  to  Chile,  the  mountain-bordered  shore  is 
a  marvel  of  coastal  scenery.  On  the  lower  slopes  are 
dense  forests  of  beech  and  oak,  higher  up  are  the  stunted 
alpine  plants  of  the  zone  of  cold,  while  the  peaks  and  crests 
of  the  mountains  are  without  vegetation  of  any  sort,  the 
surface  consisting  either  of  bare,  cold  rock  or  of  snow 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE  81 

fields.  The  contrast  between  dark  forest  and  white  snow 
and  ice,  between  green  sea  and  blue  or  gray  cloud-covered 
sky  is  one  of  the  charming  aspects  of  a  view  which  is 
perhaps  the  most  striking  and  certainly  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  in  all  South  America. 

The  bold  coast  and  the  fine  scenery  of  the  Strait  of 
Magellan  extend  with  some  variations  for  several  hundred 
miles  northward.  The  shore  is  island-fringed  through- 
out. So  numerous  are  the  islands  and  islets  that  even 
the  government  officials  who  have  surveyed  and  studied 
many  of  them  do  not  know  exactly  how  many  there  are. 
That  there  are  thousands  upon  thousands  is  however 
well  known.  Between  the  islands  and  the  mainland  are 
great  numbers  of  channels,  straits,  and  bays,  all  very 
deep,  for  these  islands  represent  the  tops  of  mountains 
whose  bases  are  far  below  the  level  of  the  sea.  When  one 
sails  about  the  islands  he  sails  about  mountain  tops, 
not  in  air  as  one  might  sail  about  mountain  tops  in  a 
balloon  or  an  airship,  but  on  water  in  which  the  moun- 
tains have  been  half  drowned.  There  are  few  good 
beaches;  the  shore  consists  rather  of  bold  cliffs  or  steep 
mountain  sides  upon  which  the  sea  has  as  yet  done  but 
little  work. 

Everywhere  throughout  the  region  are  dense  forests  of 
beech  and  oak.  So  close  do  the  trees  stand,  and  so  rank 
is  the  growth  of  leaves,  vines,  and  underbrush,  that  one 
appears  to  be  in  a  tropical  rather  than  a  temperate-zone 
forest.  The  dense  growth  is  due  to  the  heavy  rainfall. 
The  sky  is  almost  continually  overcast;  rainstorms  are 
of  almost  daily  occurrence.  It  is  stated  that  in  some 
places  over  two  hundred  inches  of  rain  fall  every  year. 
Some  people  who  know  the  region  well,  speak  of  it  humor- 
ously as  a  place  where  it  rains  thirteen  months  in  the  year 
and  where  men  become  web-footed!  Naturally  people 


82        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

have  not  been  attracted  to  the  region,  and  government 
officials  at  the  extreme  south  are  given  half  time  off  with 
full  pay.  Some  lumbering  is  now  carried  on  in  a  few 
places,  but  as  a  whole  the  region  is  without  an  important 
population, —  a  wilderness  of  intricate  waterways,  primi- 
tive forests,  and  picturesque  mountains. 

Any  country  is  fortunate  which  has  important 
deposits  of  coal  to  run  its  railroad  trains  and  factories. 
South  American  countries  are  as  a  rule  unfortunate  in 
having  little  or  no  coal.  Brazil  and  the  Argentine,  the 
two  largest  countries,  are  obliged  to  import  all  the  coal 
they  use,  and  it  is  very  expensive.  In  this  respect  Chile 
is  more  fortunate.  Large  deposits  of  good  coal  (soft) 
occur  in  the  provinces  of  Arauco  and  Concepcion. 
Coronel,  Lota,  and  Valdivia,  south  of  Santiago  and 
Punta  Arenas,  on  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  are  the  principal 
coal  centers,  though  development  is  active  at  only  the 
three  first  named.  By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  coal 
used  in  Chile  must  be  brought  from  other  countries 
—  chiefly  Wales  and  Australia;  and  the  use  of  coal  is 
rapidly  increasing.  Between  1903  and  1907  the  con- 
sumption of  coal  doubled.  The  home  production  is  still 
too  small  (about  a  million  tons)  greatly  to  affect  the 
price.  A  ton  of  soft  coal  costs  from  eight  to  ten  dollars 
in  gold. 

From  1860  to  1864  Chile  was  the  greatest  copper- 
producing  country.  Its  annual  output  was  then  from 
sixty  to  seventy  per  cent  of  the  total  output  of  the 
copper  mines  of  the  world.  The  copper  districts  of 
that  day,  at  Copia'po  and  Coquimbo,  were  the  richest 
and  most  progressive  in  all  Chile.  Thus  in  1851  the 
first  railway  in  Chile  was  built  from  the  port  called 
Caldera  to  the  town  of  Copiapo  in  the  center  of  a  rich 
copper  and  silver  region.  One  of  the  first  theaters  in. 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  CENTRAL  CHILE  83 

Chile  was  built  at  Copiapo  (Fig.  30)  at  about  the  same  time. 
Chile  is  still  a  large"  copper-producing  country  but  it  is 
no  longer  the  first.  At  Chuquicamata  in  northern  Chile 
there  is  a  whole  mountain  of  copper  ore  only  a  hundred 
miles  from  the  coast.  The  ore  will  be  excavated  in 
open  pits  by  steam  shovels  and  transported  over  a  special 
ore  railroad  to  the  coast,  where  it  will  be  smelted.  The 
product  will  be  distributed  among  northern  countries, 
chiefly  by  way  of  the  Panama  Canal.  Copper  will  soon 
be  produced  by  the  millions  of  pounds  and  at  a  very 
cheap  rate,  since  no  expensive  mine  timbering  or  tunneling 
and  blasting  will  be  required.  Southeast  of  Santiago, 
at  Braden,  are  other  deposits  almost  equally  extensive, 
and  many  of  the  old  mines,  of  which  there  are  hundreds, 
are  still  producing  important  amounts  of  ore.  Next  to 
nitrate,  copper  is  the  most  important  mineral  production 
of  Chile.  The  total  exports  of  the  country  are  valued 
at  nearly  ten  million  dollars. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND   PERU 

A  Long,  Narrow  Desert  between  Mountains  and  Sea. 

We  have  already  seen  that  South  America  has  the  south- 
ernmost people  in  the  world,  the  Yaghans  and  Onas  of 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  and  the  southernmost  city  in  the 
world,  Punta  Arenas.  It  has  also  the  loftiest  large 
lake  —  Titicaca  —  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea;  the  largest  river,  the  Amazon;  and  one 
of  the  longest  deserts,  the  so-called  west-coast  desert. 
The  length  of  this  desert  exceeds  sixteen  hundred  miles, 
a  distance  as  great  as  from  Chicago  to  the  Arctic  Ocean 
or  from  the  equator  to  Florida.  Yet  its  width  is  in 
few  places  more,  and  in  most  places  less,  than  a  hun- 
dred miles.  One  can  cross  it  in  two  days  of  hard  riding 
by  mule  caravan,  but  the  coast  steamers  generally  spend 
from  two  to  three  weeks  between  Payta,  Peru,  and 
Valparaiso,  Chile,  the  two  extremities  of  the  desert. 

The  Features  of  a  Desert.  A  desert  is  popularly 
regarded  as  a  place  where  no  rain  falls — a  lifeless  plain 
of  yellow  sand.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  no  rainless 
desert  upon  the  whole  earth;  and  while  many  deserts 
have  vast,  flat,  sand-covered  plains,  all  deserts  have  hills 
and  valleys  as  well.  It  is  a  common  mistake  to  suppose 
that  deserts  are  without  inhabitants,  for  while  some  parts 
of  all  deserts  are  truly  deserted,  there  is  no  known  desert 
wholly  without  people.  It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the 
life  of  all  deserts  is  highly  specialized:  the  plants  have 
thick  bark  or  leaves,  or  hairs,  thorns,  and  deeply  pene- 
trating roots;  the  animals  have  sharpened  senses  and 
adaptations  for  sustaining  life  with  a  limited  supply  of 

84 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU      85 


water;  and  the  primitive  people  of  the  desert  generally 
have  interesting  ceremonies  which  they  believe  will  bring 
rain. 

There  are  with- 
in the  borders  of 
the  west-coast 
desert  of  South 
America  moun- 
tains from  fifteen 
thousand  to  eigh- 
teen thousand  feet 
high,  hundreds 
of  thousands  of 
people,  and  a  large 
variety  of  plants 
and  animals  that 
find  food  and  shel- 
ter in  its  valleys 
and  plains.  More- 
over while  the  west-coast  desert  is  often  described  as  rain- 
less, some  rain  actually  does  fall.  The  amount  is  never 
great,  and  while  one  spot  may  have  several  showers  a  year 
a  neighboring  spot  may  be  without  rain  for  many  years. 
Since  it  never  rains  on  the  moon  a  traveler  has  suggested 
that  in  parts  of  the  west-coast  desert  where  no  rain  has 
fiilk-n  for  many  years,  curious  people,  who  wonder  what 
the  moon's  surface  would  look  like,  might  get  a  very 
fair  notion  of  it. 

The  west-coast  desert  owes  its  origin  to  the  mountains 
and  the  winds.  The  lofty  Andes  shut  off  the  moist  south- 
east trade-winds  or  break  them  up  into  a  complex  system 
of  shifting  winds  that  follow  the  trend  of  cross  valleys  and 
rukc'S  (Figs.  35  and  36).  Furthermore,  the  moisture  of 
the  trades  is  deposited  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes 


FIG.  35.     Sail-car   on   the   Antofagasta- 

Bolivia  Railway    near    Calama,   Chile. 

The  men  push  the  car  out  to  their  work 

in  the  morning  and  at  night  raise 

the  sail  and  blow  back  into  town 


86       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

and  the  westward-moving  air  descends  upon  the  coastal 
region  so  dry  that  no  rain  can  fall  from  it.  The  eastern 
slopes  are  therefore  clothed  with  dense  forests;  the 
western  slopes  are  so  dry  as  either  to  support  no  vege- 
tation at  all  or  only  low  shrubs,  mosses,  thin  grasses, 
and  cacti.  If  the  region  were  not  in  the  zone  of  the 
steady  trades  the  wind  would  blow  for  several  days  at  a 
time  from  the  sea  and  rain  would  fall  where  now  the 
desert  prevails.  More  rain  would  fall  also  if  it  were  not 
for  the  cold  Humboldt  Current  near  shore.  This  cools 
the  air  over  it  to  so  low  a  temperature  that  when,  as  in 
the  afternoon,  the  wind  blows  for  a  few  hours  from  the 
sea  to  the  land,  it  is  heated  by  the  land  about  as  much 
as  it  is  cooled  by  rising  on  the  flanks  of  the  coastal  moun- 
tains. There  would  be  a  desert  here  even  if  the  Humboldt 
Current  did  not  exist,  but  the  cold  current  makes  the 
aridity  more  intense. 

The  west-coast  desert  receives  the  equivalent  of  a 
slight  rainfall  from  the  almost  constant  mist  that  hangs 
like  a  cloud  bank  over  the  ed^e  of  land  and  sea.  The 


FIG.  36.    Wind  ripples  on  the  surface  of  a  sand  dune,  Atacama  Desert 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU     87 

natives  say  it  is  the  "poncho,"  or  cloak  of  the  sea  nightly 
drawn  over  its  head.    Water  particles  from  the  mist 


f 


FIG.  37.    A  caravan  starling  on  a  journey  across  the  desert  of  Tarapacd 

cover  are  collected  upon  the  leaves  and  stems  of  plants 
and  a  small  quantity  is- also  absorbed  by  the  soil.  From 
these  slender  sources  enough  moisture  is  derived  to 
nourish  a  small  number  of  plants.  The  amount  is  gen- 
erally small,  but  in  some  places,  as  at  Mollendo,  Peru, 
it  is  enough  to  support  grasses  upon  which  feed  a  consid- 
erable number  of  mules,  donkeys,  goats,  and  even  cattle. 
East  of  Antofagasta  a  small  oasis  is  maintained  by  this 
means  and  enough  moisture  collects  in  the  spoon-shaped 
cactus  leaves  to  supply  the  goats  with  the  little  drinking 
water  they  need.  Where  the  coastal  mountains  are  higher, 
as  for  example  east  of  the  port  of  Camana,  Peru,  there  is 
some  rainfall  during  the  southern  winter;  and  at  intervals 
of  several  years  it  is  fairly  abundant.  In  contrast  to  the 
surrounding  desert  the  mountain  slopes  are  here  covered 
with  a  thick  carpet  of  grass  and  flowers.  Hundreds  of 
cattle  are  driven  to  the  rich  pastures  from  near  and  far 
to  grow  fat  before  the  returning  sun  dries  up  the  soil  and 
withers  the  grasses. 

Desert  Travel  and  "  Signs  of  the  Way."  In  such  a  dry 
desert  as  that  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America  it  is 
difficult  to  travel  any  distance  from  the  railroads  that 


88   SOUTH  AMERICA:  A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


tap  the  larger  valleys,  the  nitrate  fields,  and  the  mines. 

One  must  carry  all  one's  food  or  depend  upon  the 

very  uncer- 
tain supply 
which  can  be 
found  in 
small,  scant- 
ily watered 
oases  on  the 
way.  The 
view  (Fig.  37) 
of  a  caravan 
or  pack  train 
crossing  the 
desert  of 
Tarapaca  in 
northern 
Chile  shows 


FIG.  38.     A  mountain  trail  in  the  Maritime  Andes 

in   northern   Chile.     A   heap  of  stones  called 

"  signo  del  camino"    guides  tint    traveler 

in    those    places    where    the    trail 

is   hidden  in   the  sand 


not  only  how 
lifeless  part 
of  the  coun- 
try is  but  how  well  provided  the  traveler  must  be  with 
the  necessaries  of  life.  These  men  are  beginning  a 
journey  of  several  weeks  and  have  brought  along  not 
only  bedding,  tents,  fuel,  and  heavy  clothing  for  the 
cold  nights,  but  also  food  of  all  kinds  in  tins,  vegetables 
from  the  nearest  oases,  and  enough  drinking  water  to 
last  them  until  they  reach  the  next  spring.  They  travel 
with  an  Indian  guide  who  knows  the  way  from  one  camp 
site  to  another.  If  darkness  overtakes  them  too  far 
from  a  village,  and  they  do  not  wish  to  travel  all  night, 
they  camp  in  some  sheltered  spot  and  sleep  on  the  bare 
ground.  Their  guide  curls  up  under  a  bush  or  in  the 
corner  of  a  stone  corral  and  has  no  covering  but  a  thin 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU      89 


blanket,  though  in  the  mountains  east  of  the  desert, 
whither  the  travelers  are  bound,  he  is  at  times  buried  in 
snow  when  he  wakes. 

The  trails  of  the  desert  are  in  many  places  covered  with 
sand  and  difficult  to  find,  so  that  signs  of  the  way,  called 
signos  del  camino,  are 
erected.  These  are 
nothing  more  than 
heaps  of  stones  piled 
beside  the  trail  and 


so  large  as  never  to 

be  obscured  by  sand 

(Fig.    38).      Some    of 

them  are  of  great  size, 

each    traveler   adding    FlG>  39<    A  wayside  cross  on  one  of  the 

a   Stone   or   two   that  desert  roads  of  northern  Peru 

he  may  have  a  safe  journey.     If  the  signos  are  on  a 

mountain  pass  the  Indians  sometimes  leave  beside  them 

small  offerings  to  their  deities,  such  as  a  candle  or  a  piece 

of  meat  or  some  wool,  to  bring  good  luck.     Once  in  a 

while  one  may  see  erected  over  a  heap  of  stones  a  cross 

bearing  the  inscription   "INRI,"  which  means,   "Jesus 

of  Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews"  (Fig.  39). 

Fig.  40  shows  four  parties  of  desert  travelers  pitching 
camp  beside  a  pool  of  water.  A  dead  mule  shows  on 
the  left.  The  water  on  the  right  is  covered  with  a  green 
scum  and  is  salty,  but  it  is  all  that  may  be  had  within 
many  miles.  After  a  long,  hot  ride  it  is  better  to  use 
water  like  this  than  make  a  "dry  camp,"  for  without 
water  it  is  impossible  to  eat  dry  food,  which  only  increases 
one's  thirst. 

From  Tropic  Forest  to  Barren  Desert.  Of  all  the 
interesting  features  of  the  west  coast  of  South  America 
none  is  perhaps  more  lasting  in  the  mind  of  the  traveler 


go       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

than  the  startling  suddenness  with  which  he  comes  upon 
the  coastal  desert  in  sailing  south  from  Ecuador.    The 


isHBP? 


FIG.  40.     Pack  trains  and  desert  travelers  making  camp  beside 
a  desert  pool 

last  port  at  which  the  steamer  touches  before  reaching 
the  desert  is  Guayaquil.  There  may  be  seen  every  sign 
of  abundant  and  timely  rains.  The  hill  slopes  behind  the 
city  are  green  with  foliage,  there  is  abundant  pasturage 
for  the  cattle  and  mules  outside  the  town,  and  the  banks 
of  the  Guayas  River  are  deeply  fringed  with  dense  tropical 
vegetation.  The  next  morning  the  scene  has  changed 
completely,  for  in  a  single  night  one  has  passed  the 
boundary  between  "the  desert  and  the  sown."  At  the 
northern  end  of  the  great  coast  desert  of  South  America 
there  are  practically  no  streams,  for  the  region  is  nearly 
rainless;  there  is  so  little  vegetation  that  at  a  distance 
the  landscape  seems  bare  and  yellow;  in  place  of  herds 
of  cattle  as  at  Guayaquil  one  sees  here  only  a  few  small 
flocks  of  scrawny  goats  that  somehow  pick  a  scanty  living 
from  the  dry  and  extremely  tough  vegetation,  that  sur- 
vives the  desert  dryness. 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU      91 


A  Typical  Desert  Port.  The  first  port  of  call  for  vessels 
southward  bound  along  the  ocean  border  of  the  desert  is 
Payta,  a  typical  desert  port  (Fig.  41).  It  lies  in  a  bend 
of  the  Peruvian  coast  and  is  built  at  the  foot  of  the 
bluffs  that  border  the  shore.  There  are  nearly  always  a 
few  vessels  at  anchor  in  the  harbor,  receiving  and  dis- 
charging cargoes  of  merchandise  including  rice,  clothing, 
and  implements.  A  railway  leads  eastward  out  of  the 
town,  and  there  is  an  air  of  business  and  importance  about 
the  place  quite  foreign  to  the  sterile  desert  about  it.  One 
looks  in  vain  for  any  sign  of  vegetation,  yet  there  are  fine 
vegetables  in  the  market  booths.  Surely  the  desert  does 
not  supply  the  great  packages  of  skins  taken  on  board 


FIG.  41.     A  British  steamer  with  Chinese  rice  at  Payta,  Peru.     The 

small  raft  in  the  foreground  is  a  "balsa,"  used  for  making  short 

trips  along  the  shore  and  in  sailing  out  to  meet  an 

incoming  steamer.     It  is  made  of  bamboo  and  is  very 

light.     The  ocean  here  is  so  quiet  that  no  storms 

ever  occur  and  even  a  small  boat  is  safe 


92        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  steamer!  . Large  quantities  of  rice  and  cotton  are 
shipped  abroad,  but  where  are  they  grown?  How  does 
such  a  small  port  maintain  such  an  important  trade? 

The  Nile  of  Northern  Peru.  Our  questions  will  be 
answered  if  we  but  follow  the  railway  leading  toward 
the  interior.  A  few  hours'  ride  across  a  barren  and  almost 
lifeless  plain  of  sand  and'  we  arrive  at  Piura,  one  of  the 
most  interesting  cities  in  all  South  America.  Upon  it 
depends  almost  the  entire  prosperity  of  the  port  of 
Payta.  Up  and  down  the  far-famed  valley  of  the  Piura 
River  are  the  plantations  and  farms  of  the  people,  with 
irrigation  ditches  leading  the  water  of  the  river  out  upon 
the  fields  where  rice,  sugar  cane,  and  especially  cotton 
are  grown.  Without  the  life-giving  river  all  would  be  dry 
and  barren.  What  the  Nile  is  to  Egypt,  what  the  Indus 
and  the  Ganges  are  to  the  people  of  India,  so  in  its 
small  way  is  the  Piura  to  the  people  of  northwestern 
Peru.  Small  wonder  they  regard  it  with  a  feeling  akin  to 
reverence. 

A  Feast  Day  for  a  River.  It  is  not  surprising  there- 
fore that  the  people  of  Piura  have  a  great  feast  day  on 
account  of  the  river.  Once  a  year  when  the  mountain 
snows  are  being  melted  and  the  summer  rains  return, 
the  sources  of  the  Piura  are  fed  with  precious  water. 
The  river  gradually  rises  as  the  flood  moves  downstream, 
spreading  over  and  enriching  the  valley  bottom  and 
feeding  the  irrigation  ditches  that  in  turn  water  the 
fields.  Long  before  the  flood  arrives  the  people  ask 
every  traveler  from  upstream  where  the  river  is  and  how 
fast  the  flood  is  coming,  and  in  this  way  they  learn  when 
the  river  will  arrive. 

On  the  day  when  the  beneficent  river  is  due  the  people 
of  Piura,  men,  women,  and  children,  usually  about  five 
thousand  in  number,  march  upstream  in  a  body  to  meet 


THJ|  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU      9$ 

and  welcome  the  river.  This  is  the  great  fiesta  or  feast 
day  of  the  year.  With  fife  and  drum  they  escort  the 
river  down  to  the  main  bridge  of  the  town,  some  miles 
below  Piura.  At  Catacaos  (south  of  Piura)  more  than 
five  thousand  people  take  part  in  a  similar  feast  and  with 
much  rejoicing  welcome  the  river  to  their  fields  and 
gardens.  Upon  this  muddy,  silt-laden,  and  sluggish 
stream,  not  at  all  beautiful  to  the  eye,  depend  the 
welfare  and  prosperity  of  a  great  many  people.  The 
river  is  to  them,  in  a  sense,  a  harvest.  If  there  is  abun- 
dant water  there  will  be  abundant  food;  if  there  is  little 
water  some  of  the  people  will  suffer  want. 

Rain  Once  in  Seven  Years.  The  people  of  Piura  have 
another  source  of  water  supply  besides  the  river.  Once 
every  five  or  ten  years  there  are  a  few  showers,  for  which 
the  people  eagerly  wait.  They  are  called  the  seven-year 
rains.  While  they  do  not  occur  quite  so  regularly  as 
every  seven  years  they  are,  after  all,  tolerably  regular  in 
their  appearance.  Every  few  years  the  equatorial  rain 
belt  which  waters  the  country  north  of  the  desert,  where 
such  abundant  vegetation  may  be  found,  migrates  farther 
south  than  usual  and  brings  a  few  showers  to  the  thirsty 
land,  causing  a  most  wonderful  burst  of  life.  Everywhere 
the  faint  green  tinge  of  the  short,  quick-growing  grasses 
may  be  seen,  fragrant  blossoms  of  many  flowers  fill  the 
air  with  sweetness,  and  for  a  few  weeks  a  barren  country 
becomes  beautiful.  By  the  end  of  that  time  the  water 
has  evaporated  or  sunk  underground,  the  hot  sun  shrivels 
the  grasses  and  flowers,  and  once  more  the  region  has 
become  a  yellow  desert.  Fig.  42  shows  a  street  in  Payta 
where  fruits  and  vegetables  are  sold  and  where  many 
people  come  and  go.  It  is  but  a  stream  channel  adapted 
to  the  purposes  of  a  street.  One  would  not  think  it  a 
very  safe  place  for  a  street,  but  as  it  rains  only  once  in 


94   SOUTH  AMERICA:  A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

five  or  ten  years  people  using  it  are  seldom  inconvenienced 
by  running  water. 
The  Best  Cotton  in  the  World.    It  is  a  familiar  fact 


FIG.  42.     A  stream  channel  in  Paytaf  Peru,  used  as  a  street.    As  it 

rains  but   once    in   seven    years   at  Payta,   the   people   are  not 

often  troubled  by  the  running  water  that  keeps  the  channel  open 

to.  people  who  are  well  acquainted  with  the  habits  of 
plants  that  differences  of  soil  and  climate  from  place  to 
place  result  in  certain  differences  of  qualities,  either  of 
color,  or  size,  or  taste,  in  a  given  plant.  Thus  the  famous 
Havana  tobacco  leaf  is  produced  only  in  western  Cuba. 
Likewise  certain  exceptionally  good  brands  of  coffee  and 
certain  kinds  of  cotton  can  be  produced  only  in  special 
places.  Piura  is  noted  for  the  kind  of  cotton  grown  in 
that  remarkable  valley.  "Piura  cotton  is  known  among 
cotton  merchants  for  the  peculiar  strength  of  the  long 
fibers,"  which  gives  it  a  high  value.  The  market  price  of 
Piura  cotton  is  nearly  twice  as  great  as  that  of  the  ordinary 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OP  CHILE  AND  PERU     95 

kind  grown  in  the  United  States  or  in  India.  It  is  eagerly 
sought  for  use  in  making  special  grades  of  cotton  cloth 
and  for  mixture  with  wool. 

Goat  Herds  of  the  Piura  Valley.  The  famous  Piura 
cotton  is,  however,  not  the  sole  product  of  this  fertile 
valley.  A  great  deal  of  sugar  cane  is  grown  also.  It  is 
not  all  used  as  we  use  it  here,  in  making  sugar  and  molasses. 
Some  of  it  is  eaten  raw,  or  rather,  sucked  after  chewing, 
for  the  natural  sweet  sap  it  contains.  Since  sugar  cane 
stands  transportation  very  well  it  is  bound  into  bundles 
and  taken  on  the  backs  of  burros  and  mules  across  the 
desert  to  many  other  towns  where  it  is  not  produced,  and 
there  sold  as  a  delicacy.  Goats  are  also  raised  for  their 
skins,  which  bring  about  two  dollars  apiece,  delivered  on 
board  the  steamer. 

Goats  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  desert  because 
they  are  able  to  live  upon  very  poor  and  dry  food  which 
would  otherwise  be  lost  because  no  other  animal  would 


FlG.  43.     Flock  of  goats  and  shepherds  at  Payta,  Peru,  at  the  northern 

end   of  the  Desert  of  Atacama.     They  feed   on   the  tough 

desert  shrubs  that  grow  here  and  there  in  clumps  in 

the  sandy  waste 


g6       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

or  could  eat  it.  They  browse  upon  the  very  dry  resinous 
shrubs  of  the  desert,  eating  the  softer  parts;  consume 
great  quantities  of  the  bean  of  the  algarroba,  a  kind  of 
locust  tree;  and  feed  on  such  waste  parts  of  barley  and 
other  forage  crops  as  ordinary  animals  refuse.  They  are 
also  herded  upon  the  desert,  where  they  range  in  flocks 
that  scour  the  yellow  plain  in  search  of  food  and  that  are 
sometimes  several  weeks  without  water  (Fig.  43). 

Other  Desert  Ports.  The  steamer  sailing  south  along 
the  coast  of  Peru  stops  at  many  desert  ports  and  at  each, 
one  sees  as  at  Payta  very  much  the  same  relation  between 
the  port  on  the  arid  coast  and  the  fertile  interior  valley 
watered  by  a  mountain  stream.  Fig.  44  represents  the 
port  of  Salaverry,  whose  harbor,  like  all  those  on  the 
desert  coast  of  Peru,  except  Callao,  the  largest  and  best 
of  them  all,  is  little  more  than  an  open  roadstead.  If  this 


FlG.  44.     The  port  of  Salaverry,  Peru.     Nothing  at  all  grows  in  the 

town;  but  a  few  miles  north  of  it  is  a  fertile  valley  which 

supplies  the  port 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU      97 

were  a  stormy  sea  like  that  off  the  coast  of  southern  Chile 
or  the  eastern  coast  of  the  United  States  it  would  be  one 


FIG.  45.     Hauling  water  at  Taltal,  Chile 

of  the  most  dangerous  in  the  world.  Mariners  find 
scarcely  any  natural  protection,  for  hundreds  of  miles. 
There  are  no  deep  bays  or  sheltering  promontories,  almost 
no  islands  behind  which  ships  can  seek  shelter  and  outride 
a  storm,  and  but  few  lighthouses, —  a  bold,  harborless, 
shelterless  coast. 

But  few  storms  ever  ruffle  the  surface  of  the  Pacific 
in  the  latitudes  of  the  coasts  of  Peru  and  northern  Chile. 
It  is  a  serene  and  beautiful  tropical  sea.  For  this  reason 
the  early  Spanish  navigators  called  it  "Oceano  Pacifico," 
which  means  the  peaceful,  calm,  or  quiet  ocean.  The 
only  motion  of  its  waters  is  a  smooth  and  constant  roll, 
increasing  in  size  as  the  shore  is  approached.  The  surf 
is  heavy  and  landing  in  small  boats  is  very  difficult,  and 
in  places  even  dangerous.  Steamers  and  sailing  craft 
therefore  anchor  some  distance  from  shore,  and  discharge 
their  cargoes  into  lighters  called  launches  that  are  rowed 
to  a  steel  mole  or  wharf  that  extends  into  the  sea. 


98        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

In  the  port  of  Taltal,  Chile,  the  city  reservoir  is  located 
on  a  hill,  and  pipes  are  run  down  from  it  to  convenient 


FIG.  46.     Hauling  water  from  railroad  to  mines,  Chile 

stations  in  the  city.  To  these  stations  people  must 
come  for  their  daily  water  supply.  Some  carry  it  away 
in  buckets,  others  in  two-wheeled  carts,  and  still  others 
in  barrels  to  the  ends  of  which  axles  have  been  fastened 
that  rotate  as  the  barrel  is  pulled  along  by  a  donkey  or 
a  mule.  Fig.  45  shows  a  boy  on  his  way  to  a  water 
depot,  and  since  he  must  travel  down  hill,  and  the  barrel 
is  without  a  brake,  it  is  with  great  difficulty  that  he 
can  prevent  it  from  rolling  on  to  the  heels  of  the  donkey, 
thus  causing  it  to  be  broken  to  pieces  by  the  kicking 
beast.  He  leads  it  skillfully  from  one  side  of  the 
street  to  the  other  on  an  angle  with  the  descent,  and  on 
the  return  not  uncommonly  the  donkey  is  obliged  both 
to  pull  the  water  barrel  and  to  carry  the  boy.  In  Fig. 
46  we  have  the  water  wagons  of  the  coastal  mines 
coming  out  to  the  railroad  for  a  water  supply.  The 
mines  are  twelve  miles  away,  but  every  drop  of  water 
must  be  transported  from  the  railroad,  where  tank  cars 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AXD  PERU      99 


convey  wa- 
ter for  long 
distances 
from  wells 
or  streams. 
Some  of  the 
coast  towns 
have  a  hard 
time  getting 
a  water  sup- 
ply.  For 
many  years 
they  were 
supplied  by 
boats  from 
distant 
points  where 
water  is 
abundant. 
Others  used 
condensed 
sea  water. 
Caldera  and 
Antofagasta, 
are  still  part- 
ly supplied  in 
this  way. 

The  Irri- 
gated Lands 
of  Peru.  The 
maps  (Figs. 
47,  48,  49) 
show  clearly 
the  law  that 


DESERT  PLAINS      (  j^  ^ 

'Si) 


Q  IJrxrrt   "/KO/i/xf,s' 
Scale  of  Mile* 


FIG.   47.     The  northern  coast  region  of  Peru.     Here 

are  the  most  extensive  irrigated  lands  in  Peru. 

If  all  the  river  water  were  turned  upon  the 

fields  the  irrigated  land  could  be 

increased  one  half 


ioo     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


controls  the  distribution  of  farms  and  therefore  of  cities 
and  ports  in  the  coast  desert  of   Chile  and  Peru.     The 

black  areas, 
representing 
the  irrigated 
tracts,  are 
regularly  ar- 
ranged along 
the  coast  be- 
tween the 
mountains 
and  the 
shore.  Wher- 
ever a  stream 
of  any  size 
comes  down 
from  the 
Cordillera, 
tJiere  men 
have  settled 
on  planta- 
tions and 
ranches. 
Every  port 
in  Peru  is 
ejther  a£  a 

valley  mouth 
or  connected 


FIG.  48.     The  central  coast  region  of  Peru.      In  the 

northern  part  of  this  region  the  mountains  come 

down  to  the  coast  and  the  irrigated  lands 

are  near  the  valley  mouths 


with  a  valley  by  rail.  Though  the  total  extent  of  the  valley 
lands  is  not  large  —  but  ten  per  cent  of  the  coast  region  — 
the  people  regard  them  as  the  most  important  part  of  their 
country  for,  excepting  the  mines,  there  are  almost  no 
other  sources  of  wealth.  The  valleys  (Figs.  50  and  51) 
have  a  large  part  of  the  agricultural  wealth  already 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AXD 


101 


developed  in  Peru;  they  contain  all  the  large  cities  of 
the  coast  region  and  most  of  the  population. 

Trade  of  the  Coast  Valleys.  So  widely  separated  by 
useless  desert  tracts  are  the  coastal  valleys  of  Peru  that 
land  commerce  has  less  importance  than  the  trade  carried 
on  by  sea.  A 
few  caravans 
journey  from 
valley  to  val- 
ley,occasion- 
ally  there  is 
a  traveler, 
often  a  pros- 
pector look- 
ing for  min- 
eral wealth, 
but  these 
total  a  very 
small  •  num- 
ber yearly. 
The  sea  route 
is  preferable 
to  the  trails, 
for  it  is  cool 
and  much 
speedy. 


FIG.  49.     The  southern  coast  region  of  Peru.     Most 

of  the  irrigation  is  near  the  western  foot  of  the 

mountains.     Large,  arid  pampas,  or  flat 

dune-covered  lands,  lie  between  the 

Andes  and  the  Coast  Ranges 


more  speedy.  Yet  even  by  sea  there  is  not  a  large 
traffic  from  valley  to  valley.  Trade  requires  dissimilar 
products  which  people  may  exchange  for  their  common 
benefit,  and  since  almost  all  the  valleys  produce  more 
or  less  cattle,  sugar,  cotton,  rice,  and  vegetables, 
the  trade  among  them  is  supplemented  by  a  more 
important  trade  between  all  the  valleys,  as  a  group, 
and  the  United  States,  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and 
England.  These  countries  manufacture  cloth,  tools, 


TO?  SOUTH  .'AMERICA:  A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

machinery,  canned  goods,  shoes,  and  other  necessities, 
but  all  of  them  do  not  produce  cotton,  rice,  and  sugar  in 


FIG.  50. 


View  of  an  irrigated  garden  in  the  Loo,  valley 
northern  Chile 


Santa  Fe, 


sufficient  amounts  for  the  uses  of  their  people.  So  they 
exchange  their  manufactured  wares  for  raw  products  to 
the  satisfaction  not  only  of  themselves  but  of  the  people 
in  the  coastal  valleys  as  well. 

Steamers  and  sailing  vessels  leave  the  ports  of  Europe 
and  America,  round  Cape  Horn  or  pass  through  the  Strait 
of  Magellan,  and  thus  reach  the  coast  of  Peru,  a  voyage 
more  than  eleven  thousand  miles  long.  The  coastal 
valleys  of  Peru,  are  also  in  touch  with  the  world  through 
the  ocean  carriers  that  stop  at  their  mouths  in  passing 
between  the  great  ports  of  Europe  and  western  North 
America.  German  steamers  of  the  Cosmos  line  go  from 
Hamburg  to  Vancouver  and  Seattle  by  way  of  the  Strait 
of  Magellan,  and  return,  trading  at  all  the  principal  ports 
on  the  way,  a  voyage  at  least  six  months  long.  The 
routes  of  many  steamers  will  be  changed  now  that  the 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU    103 

Panama  Canal  is  opened.  Commerce  between  Peru  and 
the  rest  of  the  world  will  be  more  easily  carried  on. 
Except  Ecuador,  no  other  country  of  South  America  will 
profit  so  much  through  the  use  of  the  canal. 

Fig.  41  shows  a  steamer  which  has  just  entered  the 
port  of  Payta  with  rice  from  China.  She  belongs  to  a 
British  firm  but  is  manned  by  a  Japanese  crew  and  has 
been  chartered  by  Japanese  merchants  for  trade  with 
South  America.  The  people  of  Piura  grow  a  great  deal 
of  rice,  but  it  is  of  such  excellent  quality  and  sells  at  so 
high  a  price  that  it  is  exported  to  Chile  and  Europe  and 
cheap  rice  is  imported  from.  China  for  the  poorer  classes. 

A  Straw  Boat  on  the  Ocean.  In  the  same  view  (Fig.  41) 
may  be  seen  one  of  the  curious  boats  which  some  of  the 
people  of  the  Peruvian  coast  employ  for  fishing  or  for 


FIG.  51.     Dam  in  the  Loa  valley  near  Santa  Fe,  Chile.     Large 

turbines  have  been  installed  and  power  is  generated  for 

running  the  nitrate  " oficina"  at  Santa  Fe 


104      SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

making  short  voyages  along  the  coast.  It  is  made  of 
bamboo  logs  lashed  together  and  propelled  by  a  sail 
fastened  to  a  single  mast.  A  rough  board  serves  as  a 
rudder  or  as  a  scull  when  the  wind  is  unfavorable. 
Another  kind  of  boat,  still  more  curious,  is  made  entirely 
of  braided  straw  and  is  so  light  that  the  owner  can  carry 
it  under  his  arm  or  on  his  back  without  the  l^ast  trouble. 
When  the  Spaniards  came  to  Peru  in  1532  they  found 
the  Indians  from  the  coast  valleys  sailing  these  queer 
craft  in  considerable  numbers.  Upon  them  they  brought 
out  vegetables  and  ornaments  of  gold,  silver,  and  cloth 
to  the  Spanish  caravels.  In  his  light  boat  the  fisherman 
puts  out  into  the  surf,  watches  the  waves  closely,  paddles 
with  all  his  might  on  the  back  of  some  unusually  high 
wave,  following  it  seaward,  and  soon  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  surf.  Often  he  is  submerged  under  a  huge  wave, 
but  he  is  seldom  overturned.  When  his  craft  becomes 
wet  the  fisherman  draws  it  up  on  the  hot  sunny  beach, 
where  it  soon  dries  out. 

Seaport  and  Capital  City.  The  commercial  life  of 
Peru  centers  at  the  port  of  Callao,  seven  miles  from 
Lima,  the  capital  city.  Here  are  gathered  vessels  from 
nearly  every  large  country  in  the  world.  Lumber 
schooners  from  Washington  and  Oregon;  merchantmen 
from  China  and  Australia;  coal  vessels  from  England 
and  Wales;  freight  ships  from  France  and  Italy;  German 
steamers  with  general  merchandise,  and  American  steamers 
from  San  Francisco  and  New  York.  The  flags  of  nearly 
all  nations  are  represented.  A  harbor  is  afforded  in 
the  lee  of  the  San  Lorenzo  Islands,  a  half  mile  off  shore. 
Besides  its  natural  advantages  Callao  has  many  artificial 
features,  a  deepened  waterway  close  inshore,  and  modern 
warehouses,  docks,  moles,  and  hoisting  machinery.  These 
facilities  are,  however,  quite  too  few  in  number  and  the 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU    105 

harbor  nearly  always  contains  vessels  waiting  their  turn 
at  the  docks. 

Lima:  the  Mecca  of  Peruvians.  In  one  of  the  remote 
valleys  of  the  Andes  a  traveler  once  met  a  Peruvian  who 
cared  for  his  beasts  and  offered  him  shelter  for  the  night. 
After  supper  they  fell  to  talking  of  travel,  whereupon  the 
Peruvian  remarked  that  all  the  trails  of  Peru  lead  ulti- 
mately to  Lima,  the  largest  and  most  important  city  in 
the  country.  Many  of  his  neighbors  had  spoken  of  the 
hope  that  some  day  they  might  visit  this  wonderful  city 
as  he  had  done  when  he  was  still  a  young  man  and  as  he 
hoped  to  do  again.  Just  then  some  ragged  shepherds 
passed  by  the  door  of  the  hut,  and  seeing  them  he  said, 
"Think  of  it,  those  poor  people  have  never  seen  Lima!" 
Farther  on,  the  traveler  came  to.  a  lonely  telegraph  station 
kept  by  the  only  white  man  in  the  place.  The  polite  man- 
ners and  well-dressed  appearance  of  the  operator  were  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  drunken  people  about  him. 
Asked  if  he  was  born  in  this  wretched  town,  he  drew 
himself  up  and  in  a  manner  quite  indescribable  on  account 
of  its  extreme  pride  and  dignity,  he  answered,  "No;  I  am 
from  Lima." 

Lima  is  indeed  an  interesting  city,  no  less  because  of  its 
long  and  romantic  history  than  its  beautiful  plazas  and 
cathedral,  its  clean  streets,  and  the  wonderful  view  from 
the  hill  of  San  Cristobal  out  over  the  red-tiled  roofs,  the 
surrounding  gardens  and  their  irrigating  canals,  the 
distant  port  of  Callao,  and  the  long,  curving,  desert  coast 
(Fig.  52).  In  the  cathedral  are  relics  of  great  historic 
interest  that  take  one  back  through  centuries;  while 
in  the  schools,  and  especially  in  the  new  School  of  Mines, 
are  found  the  most  modern  machinery  and  bright  young 
students.  It  seems  very  odd  at  first  to  pass  from  so 
modern  a  school  as  that  in  which  modern  mining  methods 


io6     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

are  taught  to  a  children's  school  where  every  one  studies 
aloud  and  where  it  appears  as  if  the  most  diligent  students 
are  those  who  make  the  most  noise ! 

When  we  remember  that  the  greater  part  of  Peru  is 
unsettled  country  because  it  is  covered  with  forest,  or 
because  it  is  situated  at  too  high  an  altitude,  or  is  too 
rocky  or  dry,  and  that  the  towns  are  for  the  most  part 
small  and  squalid  (Fig.  54),  it  is  easy  to  understand 
why  Peruvians  think  so  highly  of  Lima.  Once  he  has 


FIG.  52.     A  general  view  near  the  city  of  Lima,  Peru,  from  the  top 

of  San  Cristobal,  a  hill  back  of  the  city.     The  broad  white  band 

on  the  right  is  the  flood  plain  of  the  river  Rimac 

known  the  life  there  every  Peruvian  dreams  of  Lima  and 
longs  to  return  to  it.  With  its  electric  cars,  its  attractive 
restaurants,  its  well-kept  shops  and  busy  people,  it  is  a 
modern  city  of  great  interest  and  well  deserves  its  place 
in  the  affections  of  the  Peruvians. 

As  in  all  Spanish-American  cities,  the  central  plaza, 
an  open  square  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  is  a  matter  of 
great  pride  to  the  people,  and  is  usually  kept  scrupulously 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU    107 

clean  and  as  beautiful  as  the  resources  of  the  town  permit. 
Here  the  people  congregate  on  evenings  when  the  band 
plays,  and  promenade  in  great  numbers.  This  is  every- 
where a  very  important  and  to  the  visitor  a  most  inter- 
esting social  event.  The  plaza  is  also  well  lighted,  as  in 
every  town  of  importance,  and  is  flanked  by  public  build- 
ings and  churches,  and  the  largest  shops  and  hotels.  It 
is  a  favorite  meeting  place  for  friends  and  an  excellent 
observation  place  from  which  to  view  the  frequent  reli- 
gious processions  and  military  and  civic  parades. 

The  Highest  Mountain  Railway  in  the  World.  At 
Lima  we  become  aware  of  the  second  great  industrial 
interest  of  Peru.  Next  to  agriculture  in  wealth-producing 
power  is  the  mining  industry.  The  mines  of  Peru  are 
rich  and  numerous,  and  it  is  at  Lima  that  the  business 
of  the  mines  centers.  From  here  too  are  exported  the 
products  of  Cerro  de  Pasco  (Fig.  66),  one  of  the  richest 
and  most  famous  mines  in  Peru.  To  reach  these  mines 
from  Lima  one  passes  over  what  is  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  railroad  in  the  world,  the  celebrated  Oroya 
line.  Its  construction  was  one  of  the  great  engineering 
feats  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  a  journey  over  it  is 
a  novelty  in  railway  travel. 

The  train  climbs  slowly  up  the  Rimac  valley  and  from 
the  cars  one  looks  out  over  beautiful  irrigated  orchards, 
gardens,  and  farms  (Fig.  52).  Soon  the  train  enters  the 
mountains,  the  grade  steepens,  the  irrigated  farms  dis- 
appear, bare  rock  and  mountain  slope  come  into  view. 
The  mountains  become  more  and  more  rugged;  the 
train  rumbles  over  bridges,  roars  through  tunnels  almost 
without  number,  climbs  worm-like  along  steep  mountain 
sides  where  one  may  look  down  thousands  of  feet  into 
the  adjacent  valleys,  and  at  last  reaches  an  elevation  of 
15,585  feet,  the  highest  point  on  any  railway  in  the 


io8     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

world.  Profound  chasms  and  inaccessible  mountain  peaks 
succeed  each  other  so  rapidly  in  the  view  that  it  is  with 
difficulty  one  realizes  that  man  is  able  to  conquer  such  a 
wilderness  of  rock.  Its  builder,  Henry  B.  Meiggs,  has 
been  called  the  king  of  railway  constructors,  and  a  ride 
over  the  Oroya  railway  convinces  one  that  he  well  deserves 
the  title. 

The  Mines  of  Cerro  de  Pasco.  The  Cerro  de  Pasco 
mines  (Fig.  66)  are  owned  and  operated  by  Americans. 
Electric  lights  are  installed  throughout,  the  machinery  is 
the  very  latest  and  best,  and  skillful  engineers  are  em- 
ployed. But  were  they  not  so  rich  it  would  be  impossible 
to  operate  them.  The  high  cost  of  transportation  over 
a  difficult  road,  the  importation  of  machinery  from 
distant  countries,  and  the  scarcity  of  workmen  combine 
to  make  their  operation  expensive.  To  all  these  diffi- 
culties is  added  the  effects  of  the  high  altitude  upon  the 
workmen.  At  this  great  elevation  (14,280  feet)  the 
atmosphere  is  so  thin  that  at  each  breath  one  draws  in 
only  half  as  much  air  as  at  sea  level.  The  effect  is  soroche, 
or  mountain  sickness,  marked  by  headache,  dizziness, 
and  nausea.  Some  people  become  accustomed  to  it  to 
a  certain  degree,  and  others  cannot  remain  even  for  a 
week.  But  the  metals  found  here  in  such  abundance 
are  desired  in  the  world's  shops  and  factories  and,  in 
spite  of  all  these  difficulties,  men  find  it  profitable  to 
work  the  mines.  Each  year  they  produce  large  quanti- 
ties of  copper  and  silver,  besides  smaller  amounts  of  tin 
and  gold. 

A  Railway  across  Peru.  The  port  of  Mollendo  south 
of  Callao  is  second  in  importance  in  Peru,  and  is  the 
terminus  of  the  great  railway  that  crosses  the  coastal 
desert  (Fig.  53)  and  the  Andes  Mountains  and  con- 
nects La  Paz,  the  capital  of  Bolivia,  with  the  sea.  Like 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  CHILE  AND  PERU    109 

the  Oroya  railway,  this  line  is  a  great  piece  of  engineer- 
ing work.     It  crosses  a  belt  of  desert  country,  and  when 


FIG.  53.     Whit 


southern  Peru 


this  part  of  it  was  being  built  all  water  and  food  had  to 
be  brought  to  the  workmen  and  the  animals ;  it  traverses 
a  lofty  and  rugged  line  of  volcanic  peaks  and  a  high 
plateau,  reaching  an  elevation  of  14,666  feet  at  Crucero 
Alto;  it  connects  at  Puno  and  Guaqui,  two  ports  on  Lake 
Titicaca,  with  steamers  that  sail  the  loftiest  large  lake 
in  the  world;  it  follows  a  most  difficult  and  tortuous 
course  and  was  constructed  at  the  expense  of  many  lives, 
for  to  the  heat  of  the  desert  was  added  the  cold  and 
snow  and  mountain  sickness  of  the  highlands. 

For  twenty  years  (1872-1892)  the  Southern  Railway  of 
Peru  was  the  only  railway  outlet  of  Bolivian  commerce. 
It  is  still  one  of  the  most  important  commercial  routes 


no     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

in  that  country.  Over  it  are  shipped  to  Mollendo  a  good 
part  of  the  tin,  copper,  and  silver  of  the  mines,  the  wool 
of  the  flocks  of  llamas  and  sheep,  and  rubber,  cacao,  and 
hides  from  the  eastern  forests  and  grass  lands  of  Bolivia 
and  Peru.  It  is  by  this  route  that  machinery  for  the 
mines  and  railways,  clothing  of  all  sorts  for  both  whites 
and  Indians,  candles  for  private  houses  as  well  as 
for  Catholic  cathedrals  and  churches,  canned  goods  for 
travelers  as  well  as  for  the  city  dwellers,  lumber 
for  houses,  drugs,  and  other  goods  are  conveyed  to 
Bolivia  and  to  the  cities  of  southern  Peru — Arequipa, 
Juliaca,  Puno,  Cuzco. 

A  Quarrel  over  a  Rich  Desert.  From  Mollendo  it  is  a 
short  sail  southward  to  Arica,  the  port  of  Tacna,  in  the 
northernmost  province  of  Chile.  Formerly  Peru  owned 
Tacna,  but  in  the  war  of  1879-1883  between  Chile  and 
Peru  the  Peruvians  were  defeated,  and  since  that  time 
Chile  has  occupied  it.  The  conquered  territory  was  to 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyc 

FIG.  54.     Home  in  western  Peru,  where  it  almost  never  rains 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OP  CHILE  AND  PERU    ni 

be  returned  to  Peru  after  the  lapse  of  some  years  on 
condition  that  a  promised  test  vote  by  the  inhabitants 
should  show  a  majority  of  people  in  the  region  to  be 
Peruvians.  This  has  not  been  done.  Chile  has  not  kept 
her  promise,  and  the  result  is  constant  friction  between 
the  two  nations  and  every  likelihood  of  another  war. 

A  traveler  once  landed  at  Mollendo,  climbed  the  steep 
slope  to  the  customhouse,  and  there  found  his  way 
blocked  by  an  angry  crowd  gathered  around  a  wild-eyed 
speaker,  who  now  read  from  a  newspaper,  now  shouted 
curses  and  imprecations  to  his  listeners.  The  traveler 
found  he  was  telling  about  the  cruel  treatment  some 
Peruvians  had  received  at  Iquique,  Chile.  A  mob  had 
stoned  their  houses  and  so  frightened  them  that  they  had 
taken  the  first  steamer  for  Peru.  Each  time  the  speaker 
stopped  for  breath  the  crowd  shouted,  "Long live  Peru!  " 
and  "Down  with  Chile! "  The  dock  laborers  caught  the 
excitement,  and  when  the  next  Chilean  steamer  came 
into  port  they  refused  to  unload  her  cargo,  with  the' 
result  that  she  sailed  away  to  Valparaiso  with  freight 
that  had  been  dispatched  to  Mollendo. 

The  desert  region  that  is  the  cause  of  all  this  trouble 
might  seem,  on  account  of  its  heat  and  aridity,  to  have 
no  attraction  for  any  nation,  but  a  little  study  shows 
that  it  borders  the  great  nitrate  province  of  Tarapaca, 
once  a  part  of  Peru  and  a  source  of  valuable  nitrate  of 
soda.  As  soon  as  the  great  beds  of  soda  and  borax 
were  discovered  each  nation  became  eager  to  get  the 
larger  share  of  what  was  before  thought  to  be  waste 
land.  Disputes  over  old  treaties  and  badly  marked 
boundaries  arose,  and  finally  a  ruinous  war  was  waged 
with  the  result  that  not  only  Tarapaca  but  also  the  bor- 
dering provinces  of  Tacna  and  Arica  were  lost  by  Peru. 

Just  outside  the  southern  edge  of  the  town  of  Arica  is 


H2     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 


El   Morro,   a  five-hundred-foot  hill   bordered  by   steep 
cliffs,  a  landmark  for  passing  vessels  (Fig.   55).     Here 

was  fought  one  of 
thebattlesof  1880, 
in  which  the  Peru- 
vians were  defeat- 
ed. When  the 
commander  of  the 
Peruvian  forces 
saw  that  the  bat- 
tle was  lost,  he 
spurred  his  horss 
over  the  edge  of 
the  precipice  and 
thus  leaped  to  his 

FIG.  55.     The  famous  hill  near  Arica,  Chile,     death  rather  than 
where  was  fought  one  of  the  great  battles  of       fall  into  t^e  hands 
the  war  of  1879.     A  Peruvian  general  is 

said  to  have  spurred  his  horse  over  the  of     the    Chileans. 

cliff  into  the  sea  when  he  saw  that  E1  Mom)  {s  often 

the  battle  was  lost 

called  the  Peru- 
vian Waterloo  of  the  war  of  1880.  Upon  its  crest  may  still 
be  seen  signs  of  the  fortifications  once  existing  there,  and 
one  may  pick  up  scraps  of  old  muskets  and  guns  and  occa- 
sionally a  rusty  cartridge.  Behind  the  hill  are  a  number  of 
graves  bearing  the  names  of  those  who  fell  fighting  for 
the  land  and  glory  of  Peru. 

The  Steep  Coast  of  Northern  Chile.  A  voyage  along 
the  arid  coast  of  northern  Chile  is  full  of  interesting 
sights  of  cities  and  people  and  natural  scenery.  From 
Arica  southward  the  coast  rapidly  becomes  bolder  and 
soon  presents  to  the  sea  a  steep  face  jrom  one  to  three 
thousand  feet  high.  The  same  steepness  also  con- 
tinues below  sea  level  for  many  thousands  of  fathoms. 
For  example,  near  the  port  of  Taltal,  Chile  (Figs.  3 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE    113 


and  57)  there  is  a  descent  of  more  than  forty  thousand 
feet  in  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles.  This  steep 
slope  from  lofty  cliff  to  deep  ocean  abyss  is  charac- 
teristic of  almost  the  entire  west  coast  of  South 
America.  It  enables  steamers  to  sail  very  close  inshore, 
and  from  their  decks  one  sees  many  miles  of  bold 
desert  coast.  Here  a  sand  drift  extends  out  to  the 
very  brink  of  a  cliff,  its  particles  blowing  into  the  sea; 
there  a  steep  shore  crumbles  beneath  the  constant 
attack  of  the  waves;  and  wherever  a  stream  waters 
a  narrow  band 
of  country,  a 
few  huts  may 
be  seen. 

Soon,  how- 
ever, we  come 
to  ports  and 
towns,  Pisagua, 
Iquique  (Fig. 
60),  Caleta 
Buena,  Anto- 
fagasta  (Fig. 
62),  Tocopilla 
(Fig.  56),  and 
Taltal,  which 
are  not  depend- 
ent upon  fertile 
valleys  or  upon 
interior  oases 
(Fig.  58).  In 

FIG.  56.     A  mountain  railway  back  of  the  port 
of    water    are  of  Tocopilla,  Chile.     The  grades  are  very 

absent      CFicr  steep  and  three  engines  are  often  re- 

quired to  haul  even  a  short 

59).     Here  are  train  of  cars 


H4       vSOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 


no  fertile  gardens,  no  line  of  verdant  trees,  no  life- 
giving  canals,  no  signs  of  agriculture  or  even  of  graz- 
ing. Yet  these  are 
the  busiest  and  largest 
ports  of  northern 
Chile.  The  cause  of 
the  peculiar  conditions 
is  found  in  the  nit- 
rate and  borax  de- 
posits of  the  desert 
interior.  In  the  beds 
of  ancient  and  now 
vanished  lakes  are 
precious  salts  —  nitrate 
and  borax — that  bring 
prosperity  to  an  other- 
wise useless  land  (Fig. 

57). 

The  Caliche  Beds  of 
the  Desert.  Nitrate 
and  borax  are  not 
known  to  occur  in  such 
abundance  anywhere 
else  on  the  earth.  The 
extremely  dry  climate 
of  northern  Chile  pre- 
serves these  minerals 
from  destruction.  If 
rain  fell  the  salts  would 
be  quickly  dissolved 
and  washed  into  the 
sea  or  covered  with 


THE 
NITRATE  FIELDS 

and 
PORTS  of  CHILE 

Scale  150  miles  =1  Inch 


FIG.  57.     A  map  showing  the  nitrate 
fields  and  ports  of  Chile 


mud  and  other  impurities  and  thus  buried  or  destroyed. 
The  extreme  aridity  which  makes  the  land  so  barren  is 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE    115 

seen  to  have  a  certain  value  here,  for  if  people  cannot 
grow  vegetables  and  cotton,  and  raise  cattle,  they  can  at 


FIG.  58.     Oasis  of  Soncor,  -western  border  of  the  Maritime  Cordillera, 

Chile.     Here  a  small  mountain  stream  terminates  near 

the  edge  of  the  desert  of  Atacama 

least  produce  soda  and  borax.  The  soda  occurs  in  the 
form  of  great  beds  from  a  few  feet  to  twenty  feet  thick, 
and  in  many  places  they  are  miles  in  extent.  The  "  raw  " 
nitrate  of  soda  is  called  caliche  by  the  natives.  Fig.  59 
represents  one  of  these  nitrate  beds  of  northern  Chile. 
The  high  temperature  and  the  extreme  aridity  result 
in  a  cracked  and  very  uneven  surface  such  as  one 
may  see  on  the  surface  of  a  sun-dried  mud-flat  in  July 
or  August.  During  the  day  these  warped  and  buckled 
salt-covered  surfaces,  called  salars,  are  extremely  hot 
and  as  trying  to  the  eyes  as  snow.  Animals  as  well  as 
men  suffer  in  crossing  them  by  daylight,  and  night  travel 
is  therefore  preferred.  In  one  mile  of  travel  upon  a 
difficult  salar  a  traveler  once  counted  sixty  shoes  or  frag- 
ments of  shoes  torn  from  the  feet  of  passing  mules. 
Beside  the  trail  one  may  frequently  see  the  bleached 
bones  of  some  animal  which  has  been  overcome  by  heat 


n6       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

or  thirst,  and  left  to  die  in  the  desert.  Nothing  grows 
upon  their  parched  surfaces;  naked  as  bare  rock,  the 
salars  are  the  dreaded  spots  of  the  desert. 

The  Manufacture  of  Nitrate  of  Soda.  The  process 
by  which  nitrate  of  soda  is  refined  for  commerce  is  as 
simple  as  it  is  interesting.  The  raw  caliche  is  so  hard 
and  resistant  that  it  must  be  first  broken  up  with  dyna- 
mite exploded  in  small  holes  bored  from  one  and  a  half 
to  fifteen  feet  deep.  The  explosion  sends  up  a  puff 
of  smoke  and  great  masses  of  caliche.  The  broken 
fragments  are  piled  into  two-wheeled  mule  carts,  in  which 
they  are  conveyed  to  small  box-like  railway  cars  with  a 
dumping  device  that  is  easily  operated  by  a  lever.  As 
each  car  comes  abreast  of  the  stone  crusher  it  is  dumped 
and  the  blocks  of  caliche  go  rattling  down  into  a  hopper 
that  feeds  the  rollers.  The  crushed  caliche  is  transferred 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  59.     Piles  of  raw  nitrate  or  "caliche'1  ready  for  transportation 
to  the  nitrate  works,  northern  Chile 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OP  PERU  AND  CHILE    117 

to  vats,  where  it  is  boiled  until  the  nitrate  is  dissolved. 
The  water  containing  the  dissolved  nitrate  is  then  drawn 


FIG.  60.     The  harbor  of  Iquique,  Chile,  the  greatest  nitrate  port 

in  the  world.     To  this  port  come  ships  from  almost  every 

large  country.     They  are  mostly  sailing  ships 

that  make  slow  time,  for  the  nitrate 

does  not  require  quick  delivery 

off  into  huge,  shallow  drying  pans.  In  the  heat  and  dry 
wind  and  under  the  clear  skies  of  the  desert  the  water 
quickly  evaporates,  leaving  a  dazzling  white,  crystalline 
substance,  the  commercial  nitrate  of  soda.  With  the 
water  evaportated  a  dense  mother  liquor  remains  from 
which  iodine  is  manufactured. 

After  the  drying  out  of  the  nitrate  it  is  put  into  sacks, 
each  weighing  about  two  hundred  pounds,  and  shipped  by 
rail  to  the  nearest  port,  whence  waiting  steamers  convey 
it  to  distant  countries.  It  is  very  much  in  demand  in 
Europe  as  the  basis  of  a  fertilizer  for  worn-out  gardens. 
It  is  also  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  gunpowder  and 
many  other  kinds  of  chemical  compounds. 

So  unusual  a  commodity  as  nitrate  is  rarely  shipped 
out  of  a  South  American  country  that  uses  but  little 
itself,  without  paying  an  export  duty  or  tax,  the  burden 
of  which  falls  upon  the  consumer  in  foreign  lands.  On 


n8       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

each  hundredweight  of  nitrate  the  government  collects 
a  tax  of  about  twenty-five  cents,  and  since  many  millions 
of  hundredweight  are  shipped  out  of  the  country  each 
year,  the  total  income  to  the  government  amounts  to  the 
handsome  sum  of  about  thirty  million  dollars.  This 
is  a  large  part  of  the  total  revenue  of  Chile  and  is  equal 
to  a  tax  of  ten  dollars  upon  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  the  republic.  With  this  revenue  Chile  supports  her 
fine  "army  and  navy,  builds  public  roads  and  edifices, 
makes  surveys  and  maps  of  the  national  territory,  and 
pays  the  salaries  of  government  officials.  It  relieves 
the  people  from  a  part  of  the  expense  of  government  but 
at  the  same  time  makes  them  careless  about  government 
money,  which  is  often  spent  wastefully  and  even  wrongly. 

People  in  a  Desert  without  Food.  One  of. the  most 
remarkable  things  about  the  nitrate  establishments  is 
their  complete  dependence  upon  the  outside  world  for 
everything  except  nitrate;  even  the  drinking  water  is 
obtained  from  distant  sources.  They  are  set  in  the  midst 
of  so  arid  a  desert  that  everything  required  for  their 
operation  must  be  brought  in  by  sea  or  over  difficult 
trails  from  the  Argentine  or  from  Bolivia.  This  is  true 
not  only  of  the  machinery,  the  coal,  lumber,  structural 
steel,  iron,  and  glass,  but  also  of  the  men,  mules,  hay, 
grain,  vegetables,  flour,  and  meat.  Nowhere  else  except 
in  the  driest  and  most  forbidding  desert  could  such  a 
substance  as  nitrate  be  found;  nowhere  else  could  be 
found  so  difficult  a  place  for  building  and  maintaining 
great  establishments  like  the  nitrate  manufactories. 

The  nitrate  oficina  at  Central  Lagunas,  southeast  of 
Iquique,  Chile,  derives  its  fresh  water  from  a  pumping 
station  at  Pique,  eighteen  miles  away.  It  secures  a 
part  of  its  vegetables  from  Pica,  over  fifty  miles  away. 
The  officials  are  chiefly  from  England.  The  horses  and 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE    119 

mules,  and  the  hay  and  grain  they  consume,  are  brought 
by  steamer  from  southern  Chile.  The  machinery,  canned 
fruit,  and  tinned  meat  are  principally  from  England  and 
the  United  States.  The  workmen  are  from  southern 
Chile  and  Peru.  Lumber  is  brought  in  schooners  from 
Oregon,  Washington,  and  Australia. 

The  number  of  men  employed  at  a  given  establishment 
is  from  three  or  four  hundred  to  a  thousand.  They  live 
in  houses  arranged  in  regular  order  about  a  central  plaza 
or  a  long  street  of  bare  sand.  The  houses  are  commonly 
made  of  corrugated  sheet  iron  and  many  are  without 
floors  or  windows.  This  is,  in  a  way,  an  advantage 
on  account  of  the  great  heat,  but  it  does  not  always 
induce  the  owners  to  be  as  clean  as  they  ought  to  be. 
Their  village  life  is  rather  dull;  a  few  games,  among 
which  are  football  and  cricket,  are  sometimes  played,  but 
usually  the  great  heat  and  the  complete  absence  of 
streams,  grass,  and  cool  forest  or  park,  forbid  all  but  the 
necessary  exertions. 

The  Great  Nitrate  Ports.  The  great  nitrate  exporting 
ports,  Iquique,  Pisagua,  and  Antofagasta  (Fig.  62),  and  a 
half  dozen  lesser  ports  as  well,  have  a  far  more  interesting 
social  and  business  life  than  have  the  nitrate  villages. 
Iquique,  for  example,  has  a  population  of  fifty  thousand, 
maintains  three  beautiful  plazas,  has  several  good  clubs 
frequented  by  Englishmen  and  Americans,  and  has 
stores  and  shops  where  one  may  buy  practically  every- 
thing that  can  be  bought  in  the  ordinary  stores  of  this 
country.  Its  water  front  presents  a  very  busy  scene 
(Figs.  60  and  61),  for  Iquique  is  the  greatest  nitrate  port 
in  the  world.  The  flags  of  many  nations  are  represented 
by  the  twenty  to  thirty  boats  one  may  always  see  riding 
at  anchor  in  the  outer  harbor.  The  ships  are  of  every 
variety — three-  to  five-masted  schooners,  steamers  of 


120       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


every  size,  a  few  full-rigged  ships,  and  smaller  craft,  in 
considerable    numbers.     The    inner    harbor    is    full    of 


FIG.  61.     The  fleet  of  ships  from  many  countries  at  the  port  of 
Iquique,    Chile,   loading   nitrate   of  soda 

rowboats  owned  by  men  who  meet  the  large  steamers 
for  passengers  and  baggage  and  assist  travelers  from 
hotel  or  steamer.  As  in  all  the  other  coast  ports  of 
South  America,  they  crowd  about  the  incoming  steamers 
in  great  numbers,  jostling  each  other  and  shouting  and 
gesticulating  in  the  most  violent  manner.  When  they 
have  secured  a  passenger  they  hurry  up  the  gangway, 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE    121 

leaving  their  less  fortunate  companions  to  continue  the 
crowding  and  the  shouting.  The  scene  is  a  novel  one 
to  the  stranger,  who,  if  he  does  not  understand  the 
language,  is  rather  bewildered  than  assisted  by  the 
many  loud  offers  of  the  willing  boatmen.  At  most 
ports  the  number  of  boats  is  increased  by  fruit  venders, 
who  bring  out  vegetables  and  fruits  of  many  kinds  for 
the  passengers. 

Iquique  is  like  the  interior  nitrate  villages  in  being 
almost  wholly  without  means  for  securing  food  except 
by  boat  and  to  a  very  trifling  extent  by  rail.  Vege- 
tables are  brought  in  from  Pica,  forty  miles  away,  and 
water  from  Matilla  through  a  pipe  line  thirty-five  miles 
long.  Everything  else  must  be  shipped  from  outside 
ports.  Until  the  pipe  line  to  Matilla  was  completed 
even  the  drinking  water  had  to  be  brought  in  by  sea 
and  peddled  in  carts  from  door  to  door.  Now  it  is 
provided  by  the  city,  to  the  great  comfort  and  relief  of 
all,  especially  the  poorer  people. 

So  completely  is  the  city  of  Iquique  shut  in  by  the 
desert,  and  so  dependent  is  it  upon  the  outside  world  for 
supplies,  that  in  time  of  war  it  is  easily  conquered  by  sea. 
The  enemy  has  only  to  control  the  sea  to  control  the  food 
supply,  and  by  shutting  off  this  supply  bring  the  people 
to  terms.  Furthermore,  there  are  no  natural  means  of 
defense  for  any  of  these  cities;  their  shore  fronts  are 
exposed,  and  there  is  no  fertile  back  country  from  which 
men  and  supplies  may  be  drawn.  In  1880  in  the  war 
between  Chile  and  Peru,  and  again  in  1890  during  the 
revolution  in  Chile,  the  city  was  taken  by  sea  with  scarcely 
any  trouble  whatever.  So  well  aware  is  Peru  that  the 
sea  is  the  great  highway  of  movement  against  her  old 
enemy,  Chile,  that  her  statesmen  frequently  remark  that 
for  every  cruiser  Chile  builds  Peru  should  build  two. 


122       SOUTH  AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

A  war  between  these  two  nations  will  always  be  largely 
if  not  wholly  decided  by  a  navy. 

Railways  that  Run  up  Steep  Bluffs.  There  are  many 
peculiar  difficulties  which  the  towns  of  this  steep  coast 
must  meet  on  account  of  their  position  at  the  foot  of 
a  bluff  several  thousand  feet  high.  At  Caleta  Buena 
four  railways  make  a  three-thousand-foot  descent  to 
the  shore  (Fig.  3).  Cables  are  attached  to  the  cars 
and  engines  pull  them  up  or  lower  them  at  will.  The 
situation  seems  a  dangerous  one  for  a  railway,  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  more  accidents  happen  here  than  on  ordinary 
lines.  The  machinery  is  all  of  very  good  workmanship 
and  careful  watch  is  kept  of  every  part.  The  system  is 
not  unlike  that  used  for  making  the  ascent  of  Mt.  Tom, 
Massachusetts,  or  Pikes  Peak  in  Colorado.  Never- 
theless, one  feels  a  certain  aversion  to  a  trip  on  such  a 
railway  and  few  passengers  enjoy  what  seems  to  be  so 
perilous  a  ride. 

At  Pisagua  and  Antofagasta  (Fig.  62),  as  well  as  at 
Tocopilla,  the  descent  to  the  shore  is  made  in  ravines, 
that  have  been  cut  deep  in  the  bluff,  and  the  railway 
winds  in  and  out  in  the  most  tortuous  and  irregular 
manner.  For  miles  there  is  scarcely  more  than  a  few 
hundred  yards  of  straight  track  in  a  single  stretch.  The 
grade  is  so  steep  it  requires  several  hours  to  make  the 
ascent  with  two  engines  and  a  short  train. 

Earthquakes.  The  picturesque  town  of  Pisagua,  Chile, 
is  typical  of  the  peculiar  position  of  all  these  coast 
towns  on  a  narrow  terrace  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff.  The 
terraces  are  due  to  the  planing  action  of  the  sea  when 
the  land  stood  somewhat  lower  than  at  present.  After 
uplift  occurred  the  formerly  submerged  shelf  became  a 
terrace.  Such  an  uplift  may  mean  the  slipping  of  two 
blocks  of  the  earth's  crust  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  a 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE   123 

shock  or  jar  which  makes  the  ground  tremble.  The 
total  amount  of  the  slipping  or  faulting  that  has  taken 
place  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America  is  very  great 
and  is  in  part  the  cause  of  the  remarkably  steep  coast. 
The  earthquakes  that  occur  as  a  consequence  of  such 
slipping  of  blocks  of  the  earth's  crust  are  very  frequent 
indeed.  No  one  has  counted  them  all,  but  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  scarcely  a  week  passes  without  a  jar  heavy 
enough  to  be  felt.  Fortunately  few  of  them  are  dangerous. 
At  irregular  intervals  a  violent  earthquake  visits  the 


FIG.  62.     Unloading  merchandise  at  Antofagasta,  Chile.     As  there 

are  no  good  natural  harbors  along  this  shore,  the  ocean  steamers 

anchor  some  distance  from  the  coast  and  unload  their 

cargos  into  small  boats  called  lighters  that  are 

rowed  to  the  short  wharves 


124      SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

region,  sometimes  with  terrible  effects.  The  solid  earth 
seems  to  have  become  even  more  restless  than  the  sea. 
To  the  rumble  of  the  quake  is  added  the  crash  of  falling 
buildings  and  the  screams  of  the  terrified  people.  Fire 
may  break  out  and  add  to  the  horror  of  the  calamity 
and  an  earthquake  wave  may  come  in  from  the  sea, 
sweep  over  the  low  exposed  terrace  on  which  a  city 
stands,  and  complete  the  work  of  destruction. 

In  a  moment  a  city  may  thus  be  partly  destroyed,  as 
was  Valparaiso  in  1907,  Iquique  in  1860,  and  Arica  in 
1877.  In  the  ruined  zone  the  charred  and  blackened 
fagades  of  the  buildings  faintly  outline  the  cluttered 
streets.  Disorder  prevails  among  the  terrified  people;  the 
food  supply  is  destroyed,  and  there  is  want  and  misery. 
Only  after  the  lapse  of  months  can  the  business  of  the 
city  proceed  as  usual.  Small  wonder  that  after  these 
dismal  effects  are  once  witnessed  the  slightest  rumble 
startles  the  inhabitants  and  a  heavy  jar  drives  many 
of  the  people  into  the  streets  and  fields  with  prayers 
and  lamentations,  fearful  lest  the  walls  of  their  houses 
fall  and  bury  them  beneath  the  ruins. 

Some  Oases  of  Tarapaca.  An  excellent  view  of  one 
of  the  larger  oases  of  the  desert  of  Tarapaca  (Matilla)  is 
shown  in  Fig.  63.  A  smaller  one,  east  of  Iquique,  is 
called  the  oasis  of  Monte  la  Solidad,  or  "Mount  of 
Solitude."  It  well  deserves  the  name.  A  single  family 
of  three  have  their  home  here,  and  secure  a  living  from 
a  small  flock  of  goats,  a  few  vegetables,  beans  from  an 
algarrobo  tree,  and  water  from  a  well  near  by.  They 
also  own  a  few  mules,  some  sheep,  and  a  dog.  The 
house  is  made  of  bark  and  twigs  and  a  few  pieces  of 
lumber.  It  is  twenty-five  miles  from  their  rough  home 
to  the  nearest  neighbors.  A  more  isolated  spot  could 
hardly  be  found. 


PLATE  V.     Mean  January  temperature 


PLATE  VI.     Mean  July  temperature 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE   125 

Since  the  life  of  each  oasis  depends  upon  a  water  supply, 
every  inhabitant  is  concerned  about  the  storage  and  use 
of  water.  If  the  village  dam  breaks  or  high  floods  sweep 
down  the  valley  and  overwhelm  the  ditches  and  gardens, 
the  condition  of  the  people  becomes  very  sad.  Supplies 
must  come  over  long  and  difficult  trails.  The  poor  can- 
not buy  what  they  have  no  money  to  pay. for.  Small 
wonder  that  water  and  streams  are  objects  of  reverence 
to  the  Indian  dweller  of  the  oasis.  Although  he  has 
been  taught  the  forms  of  a  new  religion  (Catholic),  he 
thinks  of  the  old  meanings,  and  the  getting  of  food  is 
still  his  chief  object  in  life.  His  prayers  are  pathetically 
simple:  he  asks  for  full  rivers  and  bountiful  harvests 
that  his  daily  bread  may  not  fail. 

In  some  of  the  oases  the  ordinary  water  supply  is  not 
sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  farmers.  Deep  holes  or 
pits  are  then  dug,  on  whose  floors  vegetables  and  grains 
are  grown,  which  are  not  only  shaded  most  of  the  day 
but  also  reach  the  ground  water  and  thus  use  moisture 
that  would  otherwise  go  to  waste.  One  may  even  see 
trees  growing  in  the  bottoms  of  the  larger  pits.  The 
digging  of  these  great  holes  requires  a  vast  amount  of. 
hard  labor,  but  the  desert  fanner  must  have  water, 
and  if  it  will  not  come  to  him  he  must  go  to  it.  This  is 
a  common  practice  in  deserts.  In  Egypt  and  Algeria  it 
is  well  known  and  has  been  followed  for  centuries.  It 
represents  an  interesting  phase  of  man's  efforts  to  make 
"the  desert  .  .  .  rejoice  and  blossom  like  the  rose." 

Each  town  has  its  patron  saint,  supposed  to  guard 
some  special  interest  of  the  place.  For  instance,  Saint 
Andrew  is  the  patron  saint  of  Pica,  where  excellent  wine 
is  produced.  San  Isidro  is  the  patron  saint  of  the  farmers 
at  Canchones.  Sometimes  the  patron  saint  of  one  village 
is  taken  to  visit  that  of  another  village  to  ask  alms.  Then 


126      SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


the  wax  figure  of  the  visiting  saint  is  carried  at  the  head 
of  a  procession  which  marches  across  the  desert  to  the  next 
village,  where  it  is  met  and  welcomed.  The  united 

processions, 
marching  to 
the  sound  of 
fife  and  drum, 
enter  the 
church  and 
close  the  rites 
with  solemn 
prayers  and 
chants. 

From  the 
desert  the  ap- 
pearance of  an 
oasis  town  after 
the  heat  and 
fatigue  of  a 
long,  dusty  ride 
is  distinctly 
inviting.  The 


FIG.  63.     The  prosperous  oasis  of  Matilla,  desert 
of  Tarapacd,  Chile.     The  while  band  in  the 


background  to  the  right  is  the  desert 

trail.     The  tower  light  at  the  left  is 

for  the  traveler  who  crosses  the 


neat    squares 

of  the  vegetable 
gardens,  the  rows  of  refreshing  orchard  trees  bordering  the 
canals,  the  life-giving  stream,  and  the  clustering  houses 
of  the  villages  combine  to  make  an  unusual  picture. 

Upon  some  hilltop  near  each  desert  town  a  light  is 
usually  kept  burning.  Without  it  the  traveler  would 
find  night  travel  difficult,  since  so  many  of  the  trails  are 
half  buried  by  drifting  sand.  The  oasis  of  Matilla, 
a  cluster  of  houses  and  palm  trees,  is  shown  in  Fig.  63 
with  its  tower  light  on  the  extreme  left.  The  white 
band  in  the  middle  distance  is  a  trail  fifteen  miles 


THE  COASTAL  DESERT  OF  PERU  AND  CHILE    127 

away.     In  the  extreme  background  are  the  coast  ranges. 

Where  the  People  Pray  for  Rain.  The  southern  end 
of  the  west-coast  desert  is  visited  by  an  occasional  rain- 
storm in  the  winter  or  spring.  Like  the  desert  of  southern 
California,  its  rainfall  depends  entirely  upon  the  season, 
no  rain  falling  during  the  summer  and  only  a  few  showers 
during  the  spring.  These  showers  increase  in  number 
southward,  until  finally,  within  the  belt  of  the  westerly 
winds,  rains  occur  every  two  or  three  days  and  a  certain 
amount  of  vegetation  is  found.  The  people  eagerly 
watch  for  showers  and  in  the  springtime  ask  every  desert 
traveler  from  the  south  if  he  has  heard  of  rain.  If  he 
reports  that  rain  has  fallen  in  some  valley  near  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  desert  the  people  farther  north  are  hopeful. 
They,  too,  may  be  lucky  enough  to  have  a  shower. 

Besides  the  inconstant  rains,  which  cannot  be  depended 
upon  for  a  regular  water  supply,  the  inhabitants  make 
use  of  the  streams  fed  by  rains  and  melting  snows  in 
the  mountains.  The  extent  of  the  winter  snowfall  in  the 
mountains  determines  the  amount  of  water  the  people 
will  have  for  irrigation  during  the  following  summer  (Fig. 
58).  Hence  they  watch  the  mountain  snow  with  great 
interest.  If  it  comes 'far  down  the  mountain  sides  and 
whitens  them  below  the  usual  level  there  is  the  greatest 
rejoicing,  for  the  abundant  snows  of  winter  mean  rich 
harvests  in  summer.  If  the  snows  are  light  the  people 
are  discouraged.  There  will  be  little  water  for  irrigation, 
the  gardens  and  fields  will  suffer,  and  many  of  the  people 
pray  for  rain.  But  when  the  snows  are  too  heavy,  or 
melt  too  rapidly,  great  floods  come  down  the  mountain 
gorges.  These  spread  out  over  the  fields  an  infertile 
deposit  of  coarse  gravel  and  tear  up  dams  and  ditches. 
Sometimes  the  damage  from  flood  is  as  great  as  that 
from  drought. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA 
AND  PERU 

The  Switzerland  of  South  America.  The  Indians  of 
the  lofty  table-land  of  Bolivia  live  on  farms  far  higher 
than  those  of  any  other  large  group  of  people  in  the 
world.  For  this  reason  Bolivia  is  sometimes  called  the 
"Switzerland  of  South  America,"  but  it  would  be  more 
nearly  correct  to  call  Switzerland  the  Bolivia  of  Europe, 
for  the  elevations  at  which  people  live  in  Switzerland  are 
far  below  those  of  Bolivia.  Among  the  Alps  the  farms 
are  in  few  cases  above  six  thousand  feet;  in  Bolivia  almost 
all  of  them  are  above  that  height,  and  most  of  them  are  be- 
tween seven  and  twelve  thousand  feet.  Indeed,  one  finds 
many  farms  at  elevations  well  above  thirteen  thousand 
feet,  while  the  stone  huts  of  mountain  shepherds  have 
been  found  at  seventeen  thousand  one  hundred  feet,  or  just 
below  the  snow  line,  the  highest  habitations  in  the  world. 

These  facts  are  well  shown  in  the  two  maps,  Fig.  64 
and  Fig.  65;  Fig.  64  represents  the  elevations  of  Bolivia. 
It  shows  that  the  southwestern  third  of  the  country  con- 
tains all  the  high  land  while  the  northeastern  two  thirds 
are  almost  wholly  tropical  plains.  Now  in  most  countries 
the  greater  part  of  the  people  live  on  flat,  fertile  plains; 
they  avoid  the  mountains.  But  in  Bolivia  there  are 
almost  no  people  on  the  plains,  and  in  some  places  there 
is  a  dense  population  in  the  mountains.  This  is  because 
the  climate  of  the  highlands  is  cool  and  that  of  the  plains 
is  hot,  and,  further,  because  the  mineral  wealth  of  the 
country  is  in  the  highlands  (Fig.  66).  If  people  wish 
silver,  copper,  and  tin,  they  must  go  up  into  the  mountains 
for  them  and  to  places  at  such  great  elevations  that  life 
is  decidedly  uncomfortable  because  of  the  cold  and  the 

128 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU      129 


I          I  Below  77640  feet' 
1,640  to  4,920  feet' 
4,920  to  13,120  feet 
Above  13,120  feet 


FIG.  64.     A   relief  map  of  Bolivia 

mountain  sickness.  Thus  the  province  of  Frias,  in  the  de- 
partment of  Potosi,  has  nearly  forty  people  to  each  square 
mile,  althougnUTe  elevation  of  the  principal  city,  Potosi 
(Fig.  67),  is  more  than  thirteen  thousand  feet,  decidedly 
too  great  for  comfortable  living. 

9 


130     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 


\Less  than  2.5  per  sq.  mil 

20  Per  S1- 
20  per  sq.  mile  and  over 


FIG.  65.     A  map  showing  the  density  of  population  in 
Bolivia 

In  the  Nevados  de  Araca  southeast  of  La  Paz  are  mines 
nearly  seventeen  thousand  feet  above  sea  level  where  the 
cold  is  intense,  the  ground  often  covered  with  snow,  and 
where  a  frost  occurs  nearly  every  night.  The  strongest 
engineers  cannot  work  long  at  this  great  elevation,  and 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    131 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  66.     A  silver  mine  that  enriched  the  Spanish  centuries  ago, 
Cerro  de  Pasco,  Peru 

after  a  few  months  they  are  obliged  to  go  to  lower  places 
and  rest.     The  workmen  are  Indians  who  are  accustomed 


132       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

to  live  at  elevations  from  ten  thousand  to  fifteen  thousand 
feet,  yet  even  they  suffer  from  the  effects  of  the  rarefied 


FIG.  67.    Potosi,  Bolivia,  one  of  the  loftiest  large  towns  in  the  world 

air,  and  it  is  often  with  difficulty  that  enough  laborers 
can  be  secured  to  operate  the  highest  mines.  The  Indians 
lessen  the  disagreeable  sensations  of  mountain  sickness 
by  the  incessant  use  of  the  coca  leaf,  from  which  cocaine 
is  manufactured.  The  leaf  is  chewed,  after  being  mixed 
with  ashes,  and  the  effect  is  to  enable  the  Indian  to  get 
along  for  a  time  with  less  food,  to  endure  mountain  sick- 
ness or  to  avoid  it,  and  to  so  numb  his  senses  that  he 
does  not  feel  the  cold. 

The  Lofty  Cities  of  Bolivia.  The  mines,  the  climate, 
and  the  trade  routes  combine  to  hold  the  population  of 
Bolivia  to  the  highlands.  The  extent  to  which  this  high- 
land population  has  grown  as  compared  with  that  of 
the  plains  may  be  seen  from  the  map  (Fig.  65).  Within  the 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    133 

cross-lined  area  there  is  a  population  density  of  twenty 
or  more  to  the  square  mile.  This  cross-lined  area  may 
be  seen,  by  reference  to  Fig.  64,  to  lie  entirely  in  the 
highlands.  The  blank  white  area  of  the  eastern  plains 
has  a  population  density  less  than  one  to  the  square 
mile.  These  facts  may  be  stated  in  a  slightly  different 
way  by  saying  that  eighty  per  cent  of  the  people  (high- 
land dwellers)  live  upon  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  area  and 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  people  (lowland  dwellers)  live 
upon  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  area.  One  may  also 
gain  a  clear  idea  of  the  great  heights  at  which  the  people 
of  Bolivia  dwell  by  noting  that  among  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty-one  important  cities  and  towns  four  are  above 
14,000  feet  elevation,  twenty-six  above  13,000  feet, 
seventy-three  above  12,000  feet,  and  seventy-seven,  or 
more  than  half,  are  above  11,000  feet.  The  highest 
town  of  all  is  Aullagas,  which  is  at  the  incredibly  lofty 
elevation  of  15,700  feet  above  the  sea. 

The  Irrigated  Gardens.  The  highland  dweller  of 
Bolivia  who  depends  upon  the  soil  for  a  living  must  learn 
the  art  of  using  water  like  his  brother  on  the  arid  west 
coast  in  the  desert  of  Atacama,  for  large  parts  of  the 
table-land  of  Bolivia,  while  not  so  dry  as  the  coast  desert, 
are  dry  enough  to  require  irrigation.  From  hundreds  of 
mountain  brooks  and  rivers  the  people  turn  water  out 
over  their  fields  and  in  many  places  transform  the  land 
into  gardens. 

About  Cochabamba  and  in  the  fertile  Cliza  valley 
near  by  there  are  miles  upon  miles  of  green  fields  and 
gardens  which  stand  out  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  brown 
and  yellow  desert  about  them.  The  same  features  may 
be  seen  along  the  edge  of  the  plateau  south  of  Oruro. 
Every  mountain  and  plateau  stream  has  been  carefully 
directed  out  upon  the  fields  of  rich  alluvium  that  border 


134       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  edge  of  the  plateau.  Here  one  may  see  within  short 
distances  of  each  other  all  the  kinds  of  life  found  in  the 
country.  In  the  background  of  the  photograph  (Fig.  68) 
may  be  seen  the  desert  mountains  with  rich  tin  and  silver 
mines;  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  are  the  valleys,  and 
upon  their  sides  are  the  irrigated  farms  of  the  people  who 
till  the  soil  for  a  living,  while  out  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
life-giving  streams  is  the  desert,  where  may  be  found  only 
a  few  dry  plants  and  the  scattered  huts  of  the  shepherds 
with  their  flocks  of  llamas  and  sheep  (Figs.  71  and  76). 
The  Terraced  Alluvial  Fans  of  the  Plateau.  The  care 


FIG.  68.     A  terraced  alluvial  fan  in  the  great  Bolivian  plateau, 

near  Cochabamba.     Note  the  thick  walls  and  the  thatched  roofs 

of  the  houses 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    135 

and  industry  of  the  highland  farmer  are  well  shown  in 
the  terraced  fields  that  one  may  see  in  many  parts  of  this 


FIG.  69.     Looking  across  the  terraced  slopes  at  Huaynacotas 
in  the  Cotahuasi  valley 

roof  of  the  western  world.  The  terraces  are  well  shown 
in  Fig.  69,  which  shows  hillsides  near  Cotahuasi,  Peru. 
Similar  terraces  may  be  seen  in  hundreds  if  not  thousands 
of  places  throughout  highland  Bolivia  and  Peru.  They 
may  always  be  found  where  water  and  good  soil  are 
found  together  but  where  the  slope  is  so  steep  that  the 
water  would  furrow  it  and  cut  the  fields  to  pieces  if 
terraces  with  flat  tops  were  not  made. 

The  running  water  of  the  irrigation  ditches  is  not 
always  used  merely  for  the  crops.  If  there  is  enough  for 
the  fields  and  to  spare,  a  mill  is  built,  and  the  water  turns 
a  wheel  for  grinding  the  barley,  corn,  and  wheat.  If 


136       SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

there  is  plenty  of  good  soil  in  one  place  and  not  much 
water,  more  terraces  may  be  built  than  can  be  supplied 
with  water.  It  may  happen  in  this  case  that  near  by  is  a 
stream  running  to  waste  because  there  is  no  land  that 
can  be  tilled.  Then  the  clever  farmer  constructs  a  long 
irrigation  ditch  which  turns  this  way  and  that  along  the 
valley ;  in  some  places  the  stream  that  flows  through  it  fur- 
nishes power  to  a  mill  wheel,  or  slips  through  a  tunnel  cut 
in  solid  rock,  or  runs  smoothly  over  a  viaduct  supported 
by  a  stone  arch.  The  labor  required  to  build  all  these 
works  is  great,  but  water  in  the  desert  is  also  very  valuable. 
The  deep,  rich  soil  and  the  hot  sun  produce  abundant  crops 
if  only  enough  water  is  supplied,  and  the  desert  farmer 
who  terraces  his  fields  and  brings  his  water  over  long  and 
difficult  routes  is  always  richly  repaid  for  his  work. 

A  Plateau  without  Trees.  The  farmers  of  Bolivia  in 
general  live  together  in  small  villages  and  go  out  from 
them  to  till  their  farms  and  gardens,  though  one  may  see 
many  an  isolated  hut  far  from  any  village.  The  appear- 
ance of  one  of  these  villages  is  well  shown  in  Fig.  70, 
a  photograph  taken  in  western  Bolivia — a  cluster  of  the 
most  curious  houses,  with  walls  of  hardened  mud,  floors 
of  earth,  and  benches  of  stone.  But  little  wood  is  used 
in  the  houses  or  even  for  furniture  because  it  is  very 
scarce  on  the  arid  plateau  and  must  be  brought  over 
such  long  distances  and  at  such  great  expense  that  poor 
people  can  afford  only  the  smallest  amounts.  Even  an 
ordinary  ox  whip  with  a  plain  wooden  handle  costs  more 
than  the  well-braided  lash  of  cowhide,  cattle  being  numer- 
ous on  parts  of  the  plateau  but  wood  a  luxury.  In  the 
forested  Juntas  valley  of  eastern  Bolivia  (Fig.  123)  one  may 
see  Indians  bringing  cedar  planks  on  their  backs  to  Cocha- 
bamba,  more  than  a  week's  journey  on  foot  over  a  steep 
and  difficult  trail.  The  cedar  is  brought  in  for  making 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    137 

tables,    chairs,    and   benches   for    the    townspeople.     In 
some  of  the  houses  one  sees  many  curious  things  used 


FIG.  70.    A  mountain  village  in  the  -eastern  Andes  of  Bolivia 

in  place  of  wood.  Reeds,  bamboo,  cornstalks,  and  even 
sugar  cane  are  sometimes  built  into  the  roofs  and  walls. 
In  some  places  a  giant  cactus  is  cut  down  and  its  hard 
interior  split  into  a  kind  of  wood  used  in  place  of  boards 
for  the  door  frames  and  thresholds  of  the  houses. 

On  the  roof  of  the  highland  dweller's  hut  there  is 
commonly  a  thick  covering  of  grass  or  straw.  The  thick- 
ness of  the  roof  covering  is  less  to  keep  out  the  rain  than 
the  cold,  for  the  rains  are  few  in  number  and  rarely  heavy, 
while  everywhere  the  night  temperature  is  keen  and  the 
winter  cold  intense,  especially  in  the  higher  villages. 
To  keep  out  the  cold  the  houses  of  the  plateau  vil- 
lagers of  Bolivia  are  commonly  without  windows.  The 


138       SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

door  is  the  only  way  by  which  light  may  enter,   and 
the   interiors   are   generally   gloomy   and   dirty.     When 


FIG.  71.     A  scene  in  western  Bolivia.     The  white  band  is  a  plain  of 

salt.     About  it  are  hill  slopes  covered  with  a  thin  sprinkling 

of  grass  and  bushes.     The  place  is  about  13,000  feet 

above  the  sea 

cooking  is  done  the  smoke  is  allowed  to  escape  as  best  it 
can  through  the  open  door.  As  a  result  the  walls  and 
roof  are  blackened  and  the  whole  interior  filled  with 
smoke.  Even  fowls  are  sometimes  kept  in  the  houses 
and  roost  in  the  sleeping  rooms  of  their  owners. 

When  a  plateau  Indian  wishes  to  build  a  house  he  stirs 
up  mud  and  water  as  if  he  were  about  to  make  a  huge  mud 
pie.  Then  he  adds  straw  or  grass,  tramping  the  whole 
with  his  bare  feet  until  it  is  thoroughly  mixed.  The  wind 
and  the  sun  are  then  allowed  to  dry  the  mud,  which  is 
first  put  into  molds.  The  great  blocks  of  dried  mud  are 
used  like  stone  or  brick  in  building  the  walls  of  a  house. 

The  plateau  has  little  wood.  So  when  an  Indian 
needs  rafters  for  the  roof  or  frames  for  the  door  of  his 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    139 


house,  he  goes  in  search  of  cactus  like  the  cordon  of 
Fig.  72.  From  a  dead  trunk  he  strips  off  the  spiny  outer 
layer  and  exposes  a  thick,  porous,  and  hollow  inner  layer 
which  is  easily  split  into  any  desired  shape.  If  cacti 
cannot  be  found,  he  must  carry  wood  for  long  distances 
from  the  eastern  forests. 

The  Highland  Shepherd.  Ranged  on  all  sides  of  the 
plateau  villages  are  the  corrals  in  which  are  kept  at  night 
the  flocks  of  llamas,  alpacas,  and  sheep  that  graze  upon 
the  mountain  pastures.  Their  owners  drive  them  out 
during  the  day  and  travel  all  over  the  higher  mountain 
valleys  in  search  of 
food.  In  the  most 
bleak  and  lofty 
situations  isolated 
corrals  are  built  for 
those  shepherds  who 
take  their  flocks  out 
for  days  at  a  time  or 
for  the  caravans  of 
llamas  that  engage  in 
trade  from  place  to 
place,  carrying  flour, 
wood,  millet,  barley, 
salt,  and  wool.  As  the 
shepherd  drives  his 
sheep  or  llamas  along 
he  clucks  and  whistles 
and  with  a  sling  of 
twisted  wool  throws 
stones  at  them  to  keep 
them  going  in  the 
right  direction. 
While  wandering  with 


[G.  72.     Tree  cactus  from  which 
wood  is  obtained  by  the  moun- 
tain Indians 


140       SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

his  flock  he  generally  carries  a  bunch  of  wool  on  his 
arm  or  at  his  waist,  and  spends  his  spare  time  indus- 
triously spinning  the  wool  into  yarn  for  the  thick  blankets, 
cap,  stockings,  and  coat  that  he  must  wear  to  keep  out 
the  cold  (Fig.  77).  It  is  a  lonely  life  that  the  shepherd 
leads,  often  without  shelter  except  the  corner  of  some 
corral,  without  good  food  for  days,  and  far  from  any 
village.  But  his  flock  is  to  him  a  great  necessity.  With- 
out it  he  would  have  neither  meat  nor  clothing  for  his 
family  (Fig.  76). 

The  Camel  of  the  Plateau.  The  llama,  the  almost  uni- 
versal beast  of  burden  among  the  plateau  Indians,  is  a 
peculiar  animal.  It  is  half  camel,  half  sheep,  in  its 
general  appearance.  Its  short  body,  cloven  hoof,  and 
stubby  tail  are  very  like  those  of  the  sheep,  but  it  has 
long  legs,  a  long  neck,  and  a  head  like  that  of  the  camel. 
It  is  especially  like  the  camel  in  its  patient  ways,  stupid 
stare,  and  ludicrous  face.  When  one  rides  through  a 
flock  of  llamas  some  become  curious  and  walk  up  and  stare 
into  one's  face  in  a  very  funny  way.  If  an  attempt  is 
made  to  drive  them  off  they  spit  in  a  half  scornful  man- 
ner, and  with  a  very  dignified  air  walk  solemnly  away. 
Many  llamas  that  are  driven  in  caravans  are  scrawny 
and  mean  looking,  but  those  that  are  kept  for  their 
wool  and  meat  arid  pastured  in  the  watered  oases  have 
much  beauty  of  color  and  grace  of  carriage.  In  the 
shops  of  the  large  towns  are  small  models  of  llamas  made 
of  silver  wire,  and  a  llama  is  figured  on  the  Bolivian  coat 
of  arms  and  stamped  on  the  silver  coins  (Fig.  73). 

Food  is  rarely  carried  for  the  llama  even  across  the 
desert  wastes.  The  poor  animal  must  hunt  its  own  food, 
and  this  while  it  is  carrying  a  burden  and  traveling  over 
a  hard  trail.  But  its  owner  drives  it  along  very  slowly, 
usually  not  more  than  fifteen  miles  a  day,  and  thus  allows 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    141 

it  to  wander  from  bush  to  bush  and  pick  a  living  on  the 
way.  Neither  is  it  loaded  with  too  great  a  burden. 
Although  it  will  carry  seventy-five  pounds  day  after  day 
if  it  can  secure  a  good  supply  of  food,  it  is  seldom  obliged 
to  carry  more  than  fifty  pounds.  The  llama  is  an  awk- 
ward animal  to  control,  for  it  is  al- 
ways getting  off  the  trail,  and  will  not 
heed  an  ordinary  call,  though  it  answers 
to  the  whistle  of  the  Indian  driver. 

Fig.  74  shows  a  caravan  of  llamas 
just  starting  from  a  railway  with  flour 
that  has  been  shipped  from  Oregon 
by  steamer  and  several  hundred  miles 
across  the  desert  of  Atacama,  the  west- 
ern Andes,  and  the  great  central  plateau  of  Bolivia.  Now 
it  is  starting  from  Challapata  on  a  caravan  trip  across  the 
eastern  Andes  to  the  mountain  basin  in  which  lies  Sucre, 
one  of  the  four  largest  cities  in  the  country. 

Moving  a  Piano  on  Muleback.  Think  of  the  expense 
of  securing  supplies  for  a  great  city  in  this  roundabout 
way!  The  country  is  without  manufactures  and  must 
buy  its  cloth,  shoes,  machinery,  and  even  its  pianos  from 
either  Europe  or  the  United  States.  Think  of  moving 
a  piano  to  Sucre!  Yet  this  is  done.  The  great  box  in 
which  it  is  carried  is  fastened  to  four  mules,  two  in  front 
and  two  behind,  and  away  goes  the  procession  of  drivers 
and  beasts — sometimes  across  lofty  mountains — with  a 
piano  that  has  already  journeyed  from  four  to  twelve 
thousand  miles  by  sea  and  land.  Every  night  the  mules 
are  relieved  of  their  load;  every  morning  it  is  strapped 
to  their  backs  again.  In  this  laborious  way  it  is  at  last 
delivered  at  an  expense  which  only  the  wealthiest  can 
afford.  A  piano  in  Sucre  costs  more  than  twice  as  much 
as  a  piano  in  the  United  States. 


142   SOUTH  AMERICA:  A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

The  Wild  Vicuna  and  Guanaco.  Closely  related  to 
the  llamas  are  the  alpacas,  the  vicunas,  and  the  guanacos 
of  the  plateau  region  of  Bolivia  and  Peru.  The  alpaca 
is  a  domesticated  animal  and  is  found  chiefly  in  south- 
ern and  central  Peru  and  western  Bolivia.  In  general 
appearance  it  resembles  the  llania,  though  it  has  shorter 
legs  and  both  legs  and  body  are  covered  with  wool.  It 
is  never  used  as  a  beast  of  burden  but  is  kept  in  flocks 
that  spend  their  time  in  grazing.  Its  flesh  is  used  for 
food,  but  its  chief  service  to  its  Indian  owner  is  its  fleece, 
which,  if  pure  white,  is  especially  valuable  for  both  rugs 
and  clothing.  Alpaca  wool  is  very  fine  and  thick,  and 
is  highly  prized. 

The  Indians  hunt  the  wild  vicuna  and  guanaco  with 
dogs  and  powerful  rifles,  for  one  cannot  get  near  these  fleet 


FIG.  74.     Llama  caravan  at  Challapata,  Bolivia,  about  to  start 

•with  a  load  oj  Oregon  flour  for  Sucre,  over  a  week' s  journey 

to  the  east 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    143 


beasts  without  a  favorable  wind  and  under  cover  of  a 
screen  of  brush.  The  hunters  sometimes  stalk  the  vicuna, 
a  method  that  requires 
great  skill  and  crafti- 
ness, for  it  is  one  of  the 
wariest  game  animals 
known.  At  the  slight- 
est sound  it  scents  the 
air  and  with  keen  eyes 
searches  every  spot  for 
an  enemy.  At  ths  first 
sign  of  danger  it  is  up 
and  away  at  great  speed 
to  escape  in  some  deep 
ravine  or  on  the  sum- 
mit of  a  lofty  ridge. 
In  Bolivia  these  animals 
live  in  the  loftiest 
valleys  among  the 
mountains  during  the 
summer,  but  in  winter 
they  come  down  to  the 
lower  pastures  that  are 
free  from  snow. 

A  Declining  Tribe  of 
Fishermen.     Besides 
the    vicuna,     guanaco, 
a  species  of  deer,   and 
there  are  few  game  animals 
region 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

Moving  day  in  La  Paz,  Bolivia 


FIG.  75- 

the  vizcacha,   a  small  rodent, 
in  all  this  great  plateau 

In  fact,  they  are  so  few  that  the  Indians  as 
a  whole  have  apparently  never  lived  in  the  purely 
hunting  stage.  They  are  farmers  who  depend  chiefly 
upon  the  soil  and  not  upon  the  chase  for  a  living.  In 
the  whole  region  there  is  but  one  hunting  and  fishing  tribe. 


144       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Fig.  78  shows  a  fisherman  on  Lake  Titicaca,  a  member 
of  the  tribe  called  Uros,  now  much  smaller  in  numbers 
than  formerly.  They  live  mostly  in  the  reed  swamps 
of  the  Desaguadero  River,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Titicaca, 
and  fish  on  floating  rafts  of  reeds  and  brush.  They  also 
tend  flocks  and  cultivate  small  farms  on  the  shores 
of  the  lake  and  thus  earn  their  living  in  several  ways. 
Their  boats  are  made  of  straw  and  are  fitted  with  light 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &   Underwood,   N.  Y. 

FIG.  76.     Washing  and  drying  wool  from  the  Andean  table-lands 
Jor  foreign  trade,  Arequipa,  Peru 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVI^AND  PERU    145 

bamboo  masts  and  straw  sails.     Since  the  straw  becomes 
water-soaked  after  a  time,  the  boat  must  every  once 


FIG.  77.     Blanket  weaving  among  plateau  Indians 

in  a  while  be  drawn  up  on  the  land  and  dried  out. 
The  Steamers  of  Lake  Titicaca.  Lake  Titicaca,  on 
which  many  of  these  curious  craft  are  found,  has  the 
distinction  of  being  the  loftiest  large  lake  in  the  world. 
Its  surface  is  nearly  two  and  a  half  miles  above  the  level 
of  the  sea.  It  is  one  hundred  and  forty  miles  from  end 
to  end  and  about  sixty  miles  wide.  Although  the  water 
is  not  salty  it  is  of  rather  poor  quality.  Lake  Titicaca 
discharges  through  the  Desaguadero  ("the  Outlet") 
River,  which  in  turn  empties  into  Lake  Poop6,  a  very 
bitter  salt  lake  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the  south. 
In  spite  of  its  great  height  above  the  sea,  Lake  Titicaca 
is  one  of  the  valuable  lakes  of  the  world.  At  its  western 
end  is  the  port  of  Puno  (Fig.  79);  at  its  eastern  end  is 
Guaqui.  These  are  the  two  lake  terminals  for  the  rail- 
way from  the  seacoast  to  La  Paz,  the  capital  of  Bolivia, 
and  between  them  ply  a  line  of  steamers.  The  boats 
were  made  in  Scotland  at  one  of  the  great  shipbuilding 

10 


146       SOUTH   AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


yards  of  Glasgow  and  shipped  to  Lake  Titicaca  in  pieces. 
After  a  long  ocean  voyage  and  a  journey  by  rail  from 
the  coast,  the  pieces  were  put  together  at  Puno  to  make 
a  steamer. 

Nearly  all  the  supplies  of  northern  Bolivia  are  now 
brought  over  Lake  Titicaca  to  La  Paz.  The  material 
for  the  new  railway  between  La  Paz  and  Oruro  was  also 
brought  over  the  lake.  We  may  therefore  say  that  a 
railway  was  carried  across  Lake  Titicaca  by  steamer. 
The  ties  and  telegraph  poles  were  brought  from  Oregon 
and  Washington,  the  steel  rails  were  shipped  from 
Pittsburgh,  and  the  engines  were  manufactured  '  in 
Philadelphia. 

The  White  Salt  Plains.  South  of  Lakes  Titicaca  and 
Poopo  are  the  great  salt  plains  of  the  high  plateau  of 
Bolivia.  Into  them  drain  streams  from  a  large  area,  the 
great  interior  basin  of  the  central  Andes.  During  the  wet 


••••I 

FIG.  78.     Uros  Indian  making  a  reed  canoe  on  the  border  of  the  great 

reed  swamp  of  the  Desaguadero,  twelve  miles  south  of  Lake 

Titicaca.     The  rope  -with  which  he  is  binding  the  reed 

bundle  is  made  of  grass.     Note  the  cattle  far  out 

in  the  swamp  in  the  background 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    147 

season  they  are  partially  covered  with  water  and  are 
then  all  but  impassable.     In  the  dry  season  they  may  be 


FIG.  79.     Port  of  Puno,  western  end  of  Lake  Titicaca.     It  was  here 

that  the  first  steamer  on  the  lake  was  built  after  being  carried 

in  pieces  on  the  backs  of  mules  and  burros  over  the 

western  Andes 

crossed  by  any  one  of  a  dozen  different  trails.  Their  white 
dazzling  surfaces  stretch  out  for  scores  of  miles  as  a  per- 
fectly smooth  plain,  reflecting  the  sunlight  from  thousands 
of  salt  crystals.  Standing  upon  the  western  margin  of 
the  plain  at  sunrise  and  looking  across  it  toward  the  east 
one  gains  a  most  impressive  and  beautiful  view.  From 
the  plain  a  certain  amount  of  salt  is  obtained  that  is 
shipped  in  small  cakes  to  many  parts  of  Bolivia;  but  its 
wide  expanses  are  difficult  to  cross  and  its  great  wastes 
furnish  neither  pasture  nor  wood  for  man's  use. 

The  traveler  across  these  salt  plains  about  the  borders 
of  the  lakes  must  pick  his  way  with  considerable  care. 
In  many  places  the  surface  consists  merely  of  a  crust  of  salt 
below  which  lies  water;  or  the  alluvium  about  the  borders 


148       SOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

(Fig.  80)  is  honeycombed  by  the  vizcacha,  an  animal  some- 
what like  the  prairie  dog  in  its  general  habits.  Upon  these 
treacherous  surfaces  the  mules  and  horses  often  find  it 
extremely  difficult  to  make  headway  without  stumbling 
and  throwing  their  riders  to  the  ground.  In  the  full  glare 
of  noonday  the  white  surfaces  are  very  trying  to  the  eyes, 
and  the  many  whirlwinds  that  sweep  across  the  plains 
raise  aloft  great  columns  of  dust,  often  to  a  height  of 
hundreds  of  feet. 

The  Shy  Mountain  Folk  of  Western  Bolivia.  The 
people  upon  the  western  border  of  the  great  salt  plains 
of  Bolivia  are  shut  off  from  easy  communication  with 
the  rest  of  the  country.  If  they  wish  to  reach  the  desert 
oases  on  the  west  they  must  cross  the  western  Andes;  if 
they  wish  to  reach  the  people  on  the  east  they  must  cross 


FIG.  80.     The  basin  of  Lake  Huasco,   Maritime  Andes,  on  the 

boundary  between  Chile  and  Bolivia.     The  dark  band  in  the 

distance  is  the  lake,  and  the  white  areas  around  it  are 

the  salt  beds  that  are  formed  as  the  lake 

gradually  dries  up 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    149 

the  salt  plains,  which  are  without  water  or  food  for  man 
or  beast.  Until  a  few  years  ago  white  men  had  never 
been  seen  in  some  of  their  villages.  When  the  first  cara- 
van arrived  the  people  were  afraid,  and  ran  and  hid  them- 
selves. Late  in  the  afternoon  when  they  returned  they 
hid  behind  bushes  and  rocks  and  watched  the  strangers 
until  sunset.  In  the  dark  they  crept  toward  the  tent, 
where  a  fire  had  been  built,  and  at  last  one  man  ventured 
to  speak.  Then  the  strangers  gave  him  money  for  the 
barley  their  mules  had  eaten  and  exchanged  some  of  their 
biscuits  for  eggs  and  firewood,  and  asked  many  questions 
about  the  people  and  the  country.  These  mountain 
folk  regard  a  stranger  with  great  suspicion  and  refuse  to 
sell  or  give  him  anything.  If  he  wishes  a  fowl  or  a 
sheep  for  food  he  must  take  it  and  afterwards  pay  the 
owner  what  he  thinks  is  fair.  If  he  asks  for  it  he  will 
be  told  that  there  is  nothing.  Since  no  minerals  have 
been  discovered  in  the  surrounding  mountains,  and 
since  the  region  is  not  on  one  of  the  great  trade  routes 
from  the  interior,  these  people  have  never  been  dis- 
turbed by  white  men  and  still  lead  the  life  their  ancestors 
lived  hundreds  of  years  ago. 

A  Cold  Land  in  the  Tropics.  One  of  the  most  serious 
defects  of  the  great  highland  region  of  Peru  and  Bolivia 
is  the  lack  of  timber  or  a  proper  substitute  for  it.  It  is 
disappointing  to  find  so  little  fuel  in  a  land  so  cold  at 
night.  The  traveler  who  visits  Cuzco  or  La  Paz  in  June 
and  July  (the  southern  winter)  may  find  the  weather 
very  cold  indeed,  the  people  wearing  overcoats  in  the 
houses,  Indians  standing  about  shivering,  and  yet  no 
fires  in  the  houses,  no  stoves  or  furnaces,  no  means  at 
all  for  warmth  or  comfort.  The  reason  is  not  difficult 
to  find.  There  is  little  coal  in  Bolivia — none  has  yet  been 
mired  in  the  country — and  there  is  practically  no  wood 


150     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

within  reach  of  the  people  of  the  plateau  that  can  be  used 
as  fuel.  Coal  and  refined  oil,  if  used  at  all,  must  be 
brought  from  the  United  States,  or  coal  may  be  imported 
from  Wales  or  England,  but  at  such  expense  that  few 
people  can  afford  them.  Coal  in  the  form  of  briquettes 
is  brought  in  for  the  railway  engines  and  for  some  of  the 
engines  of  the  mines,  but  it  is  exceedingly  expensive. 
It  costs  at  least  four  times  as  much  as  in  England,  or 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  dollars  a  ton. 

Cactus,  Moss,  and  Dung  for  Fuel.  In  the  absence  of 
ordinary  wood  and  with  expensive  coal  and  oil  some  rather 
curious  kinds  of  fuel  are  employed.  First  of  all  are  the 
dry  and  resinous  tola '  bushes  (Fig.  80) .  These  are  pulled 
up  roots  and  all,  piled  into  bundles,  loaded  upon  animals, 
and  brought  often  for  long  distances  into  the  principal 
towns.  Donkeys  and  llamas  bearing  the  tola  brush  are 
driven  right  into  the  kitchens  of  houses  and  hotels,  where 
their  loads  are  removed.  The  tola  makes  a  very  hot  and 
lasting  fire,  but  the  odor  of  the  burning  brush  is  disa- 
greeably strong  and  fills  the  kitchen  with  blinding  smoke 
and  dirt.  The  traveler  in  the  desert  and  the  mountains 
often  finds  this  bush  his  only  means  for  making  a  fire. 
Sometimes  the  supply  gives  out  in  the  country  imme- 
diately about  a  mine  or  a  town  and  then  it  must  be 
gathered  at  greater  and  greater  distances  up  to  twenty 
or  thirty  miles. 

Instead  of  baking  bread  frequently  in  an  oven  as  we 
do,  many  South  Americans  of  the  coastal  region  and 
the  mountains  bake  it  only  once  every  week  or  two  in 
an  out-of-door  oven,  dome-shaped  as  in  Fig.  81.  The 
lower  part  is  made  of  adobe  bricks  and  the  upper  part 
of  a  mass  of  adobe  rounded  off  to  a  smooth  summit. 
Into  this  oven  are  piled  brush  and  wood  gathered  from 
far  and  wide,  and  a  great  fire  built,  until  the  oven  is 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    151 

thoroughly  heated.     When  the  fire  has  heated  the  oven 
it  is  raked  out,  the  ashes  are  removed,  and  the  loaves 


FIG.  8 1 .    An  out-of-door  adobe  oven  for  bread  baking.    These  ovens  are 
much  like  those  built  for  domestic  use  by  the  early  settlers  in  America 

are  then  put  inside  to  bake.  This  is  somewhat  after  the 
manner  of  the  old-fashioned  brick  ovens  of  America,  in 
use  many  years  ago,  except  that  the  latter  were  generally 
built  into  the  fireplaces. 

Poor  as  the  tola  is  compared  with  coal  and  wood  it  is 
still  the  best  substitute  that  the  country  affords  and  will 
long  remain  the  principal  fuel  supply  of  the  common 
people.  When  the  railways  to  the  eastern  plains  are 
completed  some  of  the  abundant  wood  of  that  section 
may  be  brought  more  cheaply  to  the  plateau,  where  it  will 
find  a  market  in  the  principal  towns.  Even  with  these 
'railways,  however,  the  poorest  people  will  still  have  to 
depend  upon  the  cheaper  sources  of  fuel. 

Another  source  of  fuel  for  the  people  of  Bolivia  is 
unknown  to  us  in  this  country — the  moss  that  grows 
in  lofty  places  in  the  mountains.  It  occurs  in  masses  in 
some  places  three  or  four  feet  in  diameter,  and  roughly 


152     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

resembles  a  huge  mushroom.  The  fuel  value  of  this 
moss  is  due  to  the  amount  of  resin  it  contains,  and  as 
the  amount  of  resin  in  it  increases  with  the  altitude,  the 
Indians  who  make  a  business  of  gathering  it  often  visit 
extremely  high  places.  One  may  see  them  collecting 
moss  up  near  the  limit  of  the  mountain  snows,  sixteen 
thousand  to  seventeen  thousand  feet  above  sea  level. 
Great  amounts  of  llama  dung,  called  taquia,  are  also 
gathered  from  the  corrals  and  sold  for  fuel,  just  as  in 
Tibet  the  dung  of  the  yak  is  widely  used.  When  mixed 
with  moss  and  a  little  coal  it  burns  readily  and  yields 
an  astonishingly  large  amount  of  heat.  On  our  own 
western  plains  "buffalo  chips"  were  for  years  a  source 
of  fuel. 

This  combination  of  llama  dung,  moss,  and  tola  brush 
is  in  many  cases  the  only  fuel  employed  at  a  mine  far 
from  the  railway  and  the  seacoast,  a  fact  which  empha- 
sizes the  general  lack  of  fuel  in  Bolivia  and  the  degree  to 
which  it  hinders  the  growth  of  the  country.  The  absence 
of  fuel  would  not  be  felt  so  much  if  the  abundant  water 
power  were  used.  If  dams  were  built  in  steep  mountain 
streams,  and  turbines  and  dynamos  installed,  elec- 
tricity could  easily  be  developed  which  would  light 
Bolivia's  cities  and  run  her  railway  trains  and  do  all  the 
work  of  her  shops.  It  will  not  be  long  before  the  people 
wake  up  to  this  fact  and  begin  to  use  the  water  of  the 
hundreds  of  mountain  streams,  many  of  which  now  run 
to  waste. 

La  Paz.  Perhaps  there  is  no  greater  surprise  in  all 
South  America  than  that  which  greets  the  traveler  who 
for  the  first  time  sees  La  Paz.  In  approaching  the  city 
the  train  runs  over  a  dry,  treeless,  and  lofty  plateau 
that  stretches  away  mile  upon  mile  north  and  south. 
Toward  the  east  and  on  the  rim  of  the  plateau  is  a 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    153 

magnificent  line  of  snowy  peaks.  Suddenly,  as  if  by 
magic,  the  whole  world  appears  changed.  One  arrives  at 
the  brink  of  a  vast  amphitheater,  with  steep  walls  descend- 
ing over  a  thousand  feet  to  the  city  of  La  Paz  (Fig.  83). 
It  is  as  if  the  city  were  in  the  bottom  of  a  vast  bowl 
and  the  traveler  on  the  rim  of  it.  In  the  bright  sun- 
light and  clear  sparkling  air  of  the  lofty  plateau,  the 
red- tiled  roofs  of  the  houses,  the  spires  of.  the  cathedrals, 
the  green  open  plazas,  the  deep  blue  sky,  and  the  majestic 
mountains  with  their  mantle  of  snow  form  a  truly  won- 
derful picture. 

The  houses  of  La  Paz  are  of  stone  or  brick  and  adobe 
or  sun-dried  mud.  The  heavy  walls  are  often  unrelieved 
by  decoration  or  ornament  except  the  projecting  iron 
work  over  the  windows.  The  custom  of  barring  the 
windows  with  iron  is  almost  universal  in  South  America 
as  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  whence  the  greater  part  of  the 
people  came.  In  the  days  when  the  country  was  newer, 
the  whites  few  in  number,  and  life  generally  far  less  safe 
than  now  the  custom  was  a  very  necessary  one.  Some  of 
the  houses  and  many  of  the  shops  and  stores  are  painted 
in  the  gayest  colors,  bright  blue  rivaling  that  of  the 
clear  sky,  bright  green  like  that  of  the  freshest  plants 
and  trees  of  the  plazas,  and  the  purple,  orange,  and  pink 
of  the  splendid  sunsets  of  this  interesting  land. 

The  fine  central  plaza  of  La  Paz  is  ornamented  with 
plants  and  shrubs,  trees,  flowers,  and  statues.  The 
principal  stores  and  hotels  of  the  city  flank  it  or  are 
very  near  it,  and  here  also  we  find  the  government 
buildings  and  the  great  cathedral  of  La  Paz.  The 
stone  for  the  still  unfinished  cathedral  is  brought  in 
part  from  the  surrounding  region  but  comes  chiefly  from 
a  distance,  and  some  of  the  stone  used  for  veneer 
and  ornament  is  brought  by  steamer  from  other  countries 


154     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

and  shipped  by  rail  four  hundred  miles  from  the  coast. 
The  Markets  of  La  Paz.  The  most  interesting  place 
in  La  Paz,  if  one  cares  most  for  the  people  of  a  city,  is 
the  great  plaza  in  which  the  market  is  held  and  where  all 
the  Indian  merchants  of  the  town  gather  to  buy  and  sell. 
Fig.  82  shows  a  portion  of  the  market  in  which  fruit  and 
vegetables  are  sold.  It  is  crowded  with  women  squatting 
beside  their  baskets  and  piles  of  fruit.  They  are  dressed 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  82.    A  market  scene  in  La  Paz,  Bolivia 

in  the  bright  red,  blue,  and  yellow  of  which  the  Indians 
are  so  fond,  and  wear  curious  little  straw  hats  and  ample 
shawls  and  skirts.  Some  of  them  go  barefoot  even  in 
the  coldest  weather,  while  others  wear  sandals.  A  few 
of  the  wealthiest  and  many  of  the  cholos,  or  half-breeds, 
wear  fancy  imported  high-heeled  boots  and  colored  laces 
of  expensive  material.  They  do  not  seem  to  be  very 
eager  to  sell  their  goods,  but  wait  quietly  for  a  customer, 
bargaining  with  him  in  a  lazy,  half-hearted  sort  of  way. 

The  strange  and  abundant  fruits  and  vegetables  one 
sees  in  the  markets  of  the  plateau  towns  such  as  Cuzco, 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    1 5  5 

La  Paz,  Oruro,  and  Cochabamba  are  always  a  source 
of  wonder  to  one  who  has  just  crossed  the  cold  desert 
mountains  and  plateau.  Whence  come  all  these  tropical 
fruits,  the  oranges,  bananas,  chirimoyas,  the  nuts,  sugar 
cane,  and  peppers,  and  dozens  of  other  things  that  suggest 
tropical  lowlands  rather  than  a  dry  and  cold  plateau? 
If  one  watch  the  caravans  arriving  and  departing  one 
may  soon  see  that  they  come  from  the  low  valleys  and 
plains  east  of  La  Paz. 

Going  down  the  beautiful  La  Paz  valley  only  a  few 
miles  one  comes  to  a  region  very  different  from  that 
about  the  city,  and  at  still  lower  elevations  is  a  land  of 
well-watered  gardens  and  fields,  fine  orchards,  and  a 
prosperous  and  contented  people.  The  reason  for  all 
this  lies  in  the  more  abundant  rains  of  the  lower  valley. 
The  lower  the  land  the  warmer  it  becomes,  and  the 
climate  of  the  eastern  valleys  and  plains  is  therefore 
spring-like  and  pleasant,  not  cold  and  disagreeable  as 
on  the  lofty  plateau.  Every  day,  year  in  and  year  out, 
caravans  are  going  up  and  down  the  La  Paz  valley, 
some  carrying  food  from  the  gardens  and  fields  to  the 
great  city,  others  returning  with  merchandise  of  cloth, 
candles,  shoes,  hoes,  and  spades,  and  the  dozens  of  little 
wares  of  the  town. 

Some  of  the  articles  one  finds  in  the  markets  of  the 
plateau  towns  are  of  course  produced  on  the  plateau. 
Barley,  meat,  and  wool  are  obtained  from  the  flocks  and 
fields  of  the  plateau  dweller.  Here  also  are  produced 
many  varieties  of  potatoes  that  astonish  the  newcomer. 
In  our  country  there  may  be  many  varieties  of  potatoes, 
but  in  the  market  they  are  all  called  potatoes.  Not  so  in 
plateau  Bolivia  and  Peru.  Perhaps  no  one  knows  just 
how  many  kinds  of  potatoes  here  go  under  different  names, 
but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  are  at  least  a  dozen.  Many 


156    SOUTH   AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

are  grown  in  the  ordinary  way  and  are  harvested  and 
sold  in  their  natural  condition.  A  frozen  and  dried  variety, 
known  as  chuna,  is  very  light  in  weight  and  is  much  prized 
by  the  Indians,  who  use  it  in  making  many  kinds  of 
soups,  but  to  the  foreigner  it  seems  rather  tasteless. 

Besides  the  fruits  and  grains  sold  in  all  the  plateau 
markets  there  are  blankets  made  by  the  Indian  women 
from  the  wool  of  sheep  and  llamas,  ropes  of  llama  wool, 
skins  from  the  cattle  of  the  eastern  basins  and  valleys, 
leather  sandals  worn  by  all  the  plateau  Indians  in  place 
of  shoes,  ornaments  of  silver  and  tin,  cloth  from  other 
countries,  the  bright-colored  shawls  so  well  liked  by  the 
Indian  women,  and  many  kinds  of  household  utensils 
made  of  wood. 

The  Royal  Cordillera.  Nothing  else  in  Bolivia  is  so 
wonderful  as  the  great  mountain  range  east  of  La  Paz 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  83.     View  of  La  Paz,  Bolivia 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    157 

that  may  be  seen  from  the  streets  of  that  city  and  for 
great  distances  out  upon  the  plateau.  It  is  called  the 
Cordillera  Real,  or  Royal  Cordillera  (also  thought  to 
mean  real,  or  dominating,  Cordillera,  as  distinguished 
from  the  lower  ranges  of  the  Andes),  and  right  well  it 
deserves  the  name  (Fig.  84).  It  is  the  crowning  range 
of  all  South  America  and  one  of  the  greatest  scenic 
features  of  the  world.  Sorata  on  the  north,  Huayna 
Potosi  in  the  middle,  and  Illimani  on  the  south  are  the 
dominating  peaks  and  reach  altitudes  from  nineteen 
thousand  to  twenty-one  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. 
Illimani  is  the  highest  of  them  all  and  overlooks  La  Paz. 
Its  white,  snow-crowned  summit  stands  out  boldly  on 
clear  days,  but  is  never  completely  exposed  to  view  for 
a  long  time.  Clouds  gather  about  it  almost  continually, 
and  snowstorms  and  mists  enshroud  its  lofty  peak  almost 
every  day  in  the  year  (Plates  II  and  VIII). 

For  a  long  time  Illimani  was  one  of  the  unconquered 
mountains  of  the  world.  But  in  1896  Sir  Martin  Conway, 
the  great  mountain  climber,  mapped  the  Cordillera  Real 
and  after  several  attempts  scaled  the  lofty  mountain. 
It  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  many  achievements  of 
this  daring  explorer,  for  Illimani  is  so  high  that  to  the 
natural  difficulties  of  the  ascent  are  added  those  due  to 
the  rarefied  air  and  the  incessant  storms.  For  more  than 
four  thousand  feet  of  the  climb  one  is  in  the  realm  of 
cold,  where  blinding  snow,  slippery  ice,  and  dangerous 
avalanches  and  precipices  bewilder  the  explorer. 

A  Day's  Journey  from  Ice  to  Oranges.  The  great 
Cordillera  Real  of  Bolivia  is  in  many  senses  a  dividing 
range.  Westward  stretches  the  flat  plateau  of  Bolivia; 
eastward  are  the  deep  mountain  valleys  and  the  river 
plains.  It  is  in  this  border  region  between  mountains 
and  plains  that  one  finds  such  great  contrasts  of  climate 


158     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

and  of   products,  the  marvel  of  every  traveler.     Think 
of  riding  in  a  single  day  from  a  bleak,  cold,  and  lofty 


FIG.  84.     Looking  east  over  the  great  high  plateau  of  western 
Bolivia,  the  snow-capped  Cordillera  Real  in  the  back- 
ground.   A  flock  of  llamas  and  alpacas  is  grazing 
in  the  middle  distance 

range  of  mountains  down  through  a  region  of  eternal 
spring  and  camping  at  night  in  the  hot  mosquito-infested 
valleys  on  the  edge  of  the  Amazon  lowland!  That  is 
what  one  may  do  near  Sorata,  and  indeed  in  several  places 
near  the  Cordillera  Real  (Fig.  84). 

Fig.  85  shows  a  group  of  Indians  harvesting  potatoes 
at  an  elevation  twelve  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  It 
is  a  dry,  cold,  bleak,  treeless  land.  In  one  hour's  ride 
from  this  point  is  a  mountain  pass  where  snow  covers  the 
ground  and  a  piercing  wind  chills  one  to  the  bone.  In 
three  hours  more  one  is  in  the  bottom  of  a  warm  valley 
where  sweet-scented  flowers  fill  the  air  with  perfume,  and 
trees  and  vines  grow  luxuriantly.  At  nightfall  one  arrives 
at  a  camp  site  where  oranges  and  bananas  grow,  where 
the  air  is  hot  and  damp,  dense  tropical  vegetation  covers 
hill  and  valley  with  a  mantle  of  green,  and  strange  and 
beautifully  colored  insects  and  birds  brighten  and  enliven 
the  forest. 

In  these  steep  valleys  whose  heads  extend  far  into  the 


HIGHLAND  DWELLERS  OF  BOLIVIA  AND  PERU    i  $9 

region  of  ice  and  snow  and  whose  mouths  are  in  the  hot 
lands  of  the  tropics  one  may  find  an  astonishing  variety 
of  plants  and  animals.  Up  in  the  region  of  the  snows 
only  a  few  cacti  and  fungi  grow,  farther  down  grow  the 
tola  bushes,  shrubs,  and  short  grasses  upon  which  the 
llama  feeds,  still  farther  down  are  the  potato  and  barley 
fields  of  the  'plateau  dweller,  and  then  one  gradually 
descends  through  the  region  of  cornfields  to  that  of  coca 


FIG.  85.     Indian  villagers  of  the  great  Andean  plateau  harvesting 
potatoes  at  an  elevation  of  12,500  feet  above  the  sea.     On 
the  other  side  of  the  mountains  in  the  picture  are  heavy 
rains  and  dense  foliage;  here  the  people  must  irri- 
gate their  crops  or  plant  them  where  the  springs 
come  out  of  the  ground 


160     SOUTH   AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

orchards,  from  coca  orchards  to  orange  groves,  and  at 
last  to  the  land  of  the  plains,  the  land  of  cacao  and  rubber. 

Plateau  and  Valley  Contrasts.  The  habits  and  customs 
of  the  people  of  these  different  regions  are  as  unlike  as 
the  products.  In  the  higher  portions  of  the  land  one  finds 
thick- walled  houses;  in  the  lower  valleys  the  climate  is 
so  warm  that  the  houses  have  no  walls  at  all.  It  is  so 
dry  on  the  plateau  that  while  the  roofs  are  made  thick 
to  keep  out  the  cold  they  are  pitched  at  a  low  angle;  in 
the  valleys  the  roofs  are  steep  and  thick  not  to  keep  out 
the  cold  but  the  better  to  shed  water.  On  the  plateau  the 
people  sleep  in  closed  houses  and  under  warm  blankets; 
in  the  valleys  they  sleep  in  hammocks  or  on  benches  in 
open  rooms. 

The  plateau  Indian  rarely  goes  where  his  precious  llama 
will  not  go,  and  the  llama  is  a  child  of  the  cold,  forestless 
plateau.  If  taken  down  into  the  warm  valleys  it  will 
become  sick,  and  if  kept  there  long  it  will  die.  If  the 
Indian  of  the  plateau  goes  down  into  the  valleys  and 
plains  he  is  not  so  comfortable  as  on  the  plateau,  and  if 
he  stays  on  the  plains  he  may  quickly  become  ill  and 
die.  Thus  the  mountain  climate  and  the  valley  and 
plains  climate  are  so  dissimilar  that  they  have  led  to 
the  development  of  two  groups  of  people  wholly  unlike. 
In  the  past  their  differences  often  led  to  war,  but  in 
these  days  of  multiplying  trade  routes  they  are  glad 
to  exchange  their  various  products  and  live  on  friendly 
terms. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  INCA  KINGS  AND   PEOPLE 

A  Powerful  Ancient  Race.  Upon  the  high  plateaus  of 
Peru  and  Bolivia  one  sees  to-day  a  most  interesting  race 
of  Indians.  Their  ancestors  were  subjects  of  that  great 
Inca  empire  whose  wise  laws,  deep  religion,  splendid 
palaces  (Fig.  86),  and  fine  aqueducts  are  among  the 
wonders  of  the  world.  Even  to-day  the  plateau  Indian  in 
his  bright-colored  blanket  and  cap,  with  his  quick  trot, 
his  mysterious  silence  and  grave  looks,  is  an  interesting 
creature.  What  must  he  have  been  in  the  days  before 
the  coming  of  the  Spaniards?  Now  his  spirit  is  broken 
by  misuse  and  he  is  awed  by  the  powerful  white  man 
whom  he  serves.  In  the  days  of  the  Inca  empire  he  was 
a  soldier  in  the  army  of  the  king,  he  fought  and  won 
great  battles,  made  long,  dangerous  marches,  and  tamed 
even  the  grim  mountain  slopes  for  his  flocks  of  llamas 
and  the  silver  of  his  splendid  temples. 

The  Civilized  Indians  of  the  Plateau.  The  early 
Spanish  explorers  found  to  their  surprise  that  parts  of 
the  New  World  were  peopled  by  Indians  who  were  not 
wild  and  savage,  but  partly  civilized.  In  Peru,  as  well  as 
in  Mexico,  there  was  found  a  great  Indian  nation,  with 
laws,  government,  taxes,  well-drilled  armies,  great  forts 
and  temples,  and  an  elaborate  religion.  It  is  peculiar 
to  both  the  Mexican  Indians  and  those  of  Peru  that 
their  great  civilization  was  developed  upon  a  high  table- 
land or  plateau.  We  shall  understand  this  fact  if  we 
remember  that  upon  the  wet  lowlands  in  the  tropics, 
where  great  heat  is  the  rule,  man  finds  progress  all 
but  impossible.  The  intense  heat,  as  well  as  the  dense 
11  161 


1 62     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

vegetation,  prevents  man  from  developing  into  the 
intelligent  race  type  that  is  found  in  the  cooler  zones, 
in  which  France,  England,  the  United  States,  Chile, 
and  other  progressive  countries  are  located. 

There  is  one  exception  to  this  rule.  Even  in  the  tropics 
a  cool  climate  may  be  found  where  there  are  mountains 
and  plateaus.  In  fact,  if  one  only  goes  high  enough  one 
may  find  mountain  peaks  with  perpetual  snow  and  ice 
upon  them.  Chimborazo  at  Quito  rises  twenty-one  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  sea.  Its  snow-capped  summit  may 
be  seen  on  clear  days  from  Guayaquil  itself,  one  of  the 
hottest  cities  in  the  world.  The  cold  of  high  elevations 
even  in  tropical  regions  may  be  as  intense  as  is  the  heat 
of  the  lowlands.  Between  these  extremes,  if  only  one  will 
seek  the  right  altitude,  a  moderate  temperature  may 


FIG.  86.     A  twelve-cornered  stone  in  the  Inca  palace,  Cuzco,  Peru 


THE   INCA   KINGS   AND   PEOPLE  163 

always  be  found,  neither  so  hot  as  to  prevent  man's 
development  nor  so  cold  as  to  drive  him  away.  This 
intermediate  level  is  situated  between  seven  thousand 
and  twelve  thousand  feet.  If  the  amount  of  land  between 
those  elevations  in  a  given  region  is  small,  few  people 
can  occupy  it,  and  there  will  not  be  offered  a  chance  for 
growth ;  if  the  amount  is  large  there  wilt  be  room  for  spa- 
cious fields,  wide  pastures,  great  cities,  and  many  people. 
In  short,  there  will  be  room  for  a  nation  and  a  chance  for 
civilization  to  develop. 

It  requires  but  little  study  of  the  map  (Fig.  64)  to  show 
how  much  of  Peru  and  Bolivia  lies  at  this  favored  height, 
where  cool  weather,  clear  skies,  and  water  for  irrigation 
may  be  found.  It  was  very  natural  therefore  that  the 
Indians  who  dwelt  there  should  be  more  progressive  than 
their  neighbors  in  the  tropical  jungles  of  the  Amazon 
valley.  They  were  more  alert  mentally.  They  built 
great  cities  and  towns,  among  them  Cuzco,  the  capital 
of  the  Inca  empire  (Fig.  87),  and  this  the  hunter  in  the 
forest  never  does.  They  lived  by  farming  chiefly,  with 
some  grazing;  hence  there  were  more  people  in  a  given 
area  than  can  be  found  in  a  forest  where  men  hunt  and 
fish  over  wide  spaces  for  a  living.  Life  in  such  a  highland 
region  may  be  easy,  but  never  so  easy  as  to  make  men 
lazy;  it  is  hard,  but  never  so  hard  as  to  discourage  men 
and  turn  them  into  savages  or  prevent  them  from 
becoming  anything  more  than  savages.  We  must  con- 
clude, then,  that  it  is  in  large  part  the  climate  upon 
these  highlands  that  resulted  in  the  rise  of  the  great 
empire  of. the  Incas  which  stretched  for  hundreds  of 
miles  from  Ecuador  to  Chile  and  from  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  Andes  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

The  Inca  Kings  at  Work.  The  Inca  Indians  were 
remarkable  in  many  ways  but  perhaps  most  of  all  for  the 


1 64     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

way  in  which  they  adapted  themselves  to  the  country  in 
which  they  lived.    It  is  so  dry  upon  the  table-land  where 


FIG.  87.     The  city  of  Cuzco,  Peru,  the  ancient  capital  of  the 
Inca  empire 

they  dwelt  that,  although  some  grass  and  potatoes  will 
grow  without  irrigation,  the  best  crops  can  be  grown  only 
where  water  is  applied  to  the  land.  The  Inca  kings  were 
very  intelligent  men  and  taught  their  people  how  best 
to  conduct  the  water  along  canals  to  their  fields  of  millet 
and  corn.  They  taught  them  industry  and  skill.  Every 
year  the  king  himself  went  out  into  a  field  near  Cuzco 
and  guided  the  plow  to  show  his  subjects  how  necessary 
it  was  to  work,  and  how  important  were  the  farms  upon 
which  the  people  had  to  depend  for  food.  Of  course, 
after  that,  no  man  felt  ashamed  to  plow  or  to  do  other 
work  in  the  fields,  for  the  king  himself,  in  sight  of  all  the 
people  of  Cuzco,  had  plowed  a  furrow  and  worked  with 


THE  INCA  KINGS  AND  PEOPLE 


165 


his  hands  and  soiled  his  feet  with  earth.  This  dignified 
labor.  It  made  men  want  to  do  what  the  king  had  done. 
It  made  them  proud  of  their  work. 

The  King's  Agents.  Another  thing  these  kings  did  that 
was  of  great  help  to  their  people.  They  sent  intelligent 
men  through  the  land  to  find  out  for  what  products  each 
part  was  best  suited.  If  they  found  a  spot  where  igno- 
rant people  were  growing  potatoes  and  where  corn  would 
grow  much  better,  they  made  them  grow  corn  instead,  and 
then  exchange  what  they  did  not  need  for  potatoes  grown 
somewhere  else.  In  this  way  they  organized  their  subjects 
into  a  great  family  in  which  each  group  worked  for  the 
good  of  all  the  people.  If  the  crops  failed  in  one  place  on 
account  of  the  lack  of  water,  the  people  whose  crops  were 
good  had  to  give  up  a  part  of  their  harvest  to  the  poor. 


FIG.  88.     A  splendid  church  on  the  central  plaza,  Cuzco,  Peru 


i66    SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


Crops  for  Taxes.  The  kings  also  helped  trade.  They 
urged  the  people  of  the  mountains  to  visit  the  people  of 
the  valleys  and  plains  and  exchange  the  wool  and  meat 
of  their  flocks  for  the  dried  fruit  and  grain  of  the  farms 
in  the  valleys.  They  were  very  careful  in  taxing  the 
people  to  make  them  pay  only  what  was  fair  and  what 
they  could  easily  get.  Of  course  a  government  can  be 
run  only  by  taxing  the  people  who  are  governed,  This 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  89.     Selling  potatoes  in  their  native  landmarket  before  Jesuit 
Church  and  College,  Cuzco,  Peru 


THE   INCA   KINGS   AND   PEOPLE  167 

tax  supports  an  army,  which  is  always  needed  for  defense; 
it  pays  the  men  who  work  for  all  the  people;  it  allows  the 
building  of  forts  for  protection  and  temples  for  worship — 
an  important  thing  in  the  religion  of  the  Incas.  The 
men  who  grew  potatoes  sent  a  part  of  their  crop  as  tribute 
to  Cuzco,  those  who  kept  flocks  of  llamas  sent  wool, 
those  who  grew  corn  sent  corn.  In  this  way  the  taxes 
were  easily  collected,  for  no  man  felt  his  tax  a  burden. 
The  kings  even  taught  their  subjects  to  be  clean  in  person 
and  in  their  towns,  and  sometimes  punished  them  for 
disobedience  in  regard  to  cleanliness. 

The  Worship  of  the  Sun.  The  different  families  of 
Indians  in  North  and  in  South  America  had  a  great  many 
kinds  of  religions.  Each  religion  or  belief  had  certain 
features  that  grew  out  of  the  kind  of  place  in  which  it 
was  known  and  practiced.  Like  all  the  other  Indians 
the  Incas  had  their  own  religion.  They  regarded  it  very 
highly  and  paid  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  its  rites. 
The  great  central  object  of  worship  was  the  sun,  which 
was  regarded  as  the  source  of  all  life,  the  giver  of  all 
benefits,  the  caretaker  of  the  world.  This  is  a  very 
natural  sort  of  belief  to  an  ignorant  Indian. 

On  the  night  of  June  2 1 ,  the  shortest  and  often  the  cold- 
est day  of  the  year  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  many  of 
the  Indians  of  to-day  still  follow  one  of  the  old  Inca 
customs.  They  build  fires  at  every  important  street 
corner  in  the  cities  and  towns  and  on  every  prominent 
hilltop  and  mountain  in  the  country.  They  say  that  they 
do  this  to  bring  back  the  sun,  which  is  then  farthest  north; 
and  also  to  prevent  the  stones  and  earth  from  becoming 
so  cold  as  to  crack  open  from  the  frost.  The  custom  is 
a  pretty  one,  and  the  night  is  made  extremely  picturesque 
by  the  fires  gleaming  on  all  the  hilltops  roundabout. 
It  reminds  one  of  the  games  the  Eskimos  play  and  the 


1 68     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

sacred  rites  they  observe  to  bring  back  the  sun  to  their 
cold  northern  land.  Small  wonder,  then,  that  the  Incas 
worshiped  the  sun  as  the  giver  of  light  and  warmth.  Its 
light  beautified  the  earth ;  it  gave  life  to  the  growing  plants 
and  warmth  to  man  after  the  cold  night.  To  one  who 
has  experienced  the  night  temperatures  on  a  high  plateau 
it  seems  not  at  all  strange  that  these  Indians  should  regard 
the  sun  with  awe,  and  should  even  build  up  a  religion  based 
on  the  worship  of  the  sun. 

The  Prayers  of  the  Sun  Worshipers.  Many  of  the 
forms  of  the  Inca  Indian's  religion  are  of  great  interest 
and  even  beauty.  Some  of  their  prayers  are  framed  in 
very  simple  language  and  express  deep  faith  that  their 
petitions  to  the  sun  will  be  answered.  Many  of  them 
have  been  written  and  preserved  for  us  by  an  Inca  Indian 
who  lived  in  Peru  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest. 
He  was  educated  in  Spain,  and  when  he  became  old, 
wrote  out  in  Spanish  the  history  of  his  people.  The  book 
is  now  printed  in  English  also,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  stories  in  the  world.  Its  author  was  Garcilasso 
de  la  Vega,  to  whom  we  owe  much  of  our  knowledge  of 
Inca  customs  and  beliefs.  Some  of  the  prayers  he  wrote 
are  worth  reading  here: 

Prayer  to  the  Creator 

"...  Thou  who  givest  life  and  strength  to  mankind  .  .  . 
and  vouchsafest  that  men  live  in  health  and  peace,  and  free  from 
danger:  Thou  who  dwellest  in  the  heights  of  heaven,  in  the 
thunder,  and  in  the  storm  clouds,  hear  us!  and  grant  us  eternal 
life.  Have  us  in  thy  keeping,  and  receive  this  our  offering,  as  it 
shall  please  thee,  O  Creator!" 

Prayer  to  the  Sun 

"O  Creator!  Thou  who  gavest  being  to  the  Sun,  and  afterwards 
said  let  there  be  day  and  night,  raise  it  and  cause  it  to  shine,  and 
preserve  that  which  thou  hast  created,  that  it  may  give  light  to 
men.  Grant  this,  O  Creator!" 

In  their  prayers  one  finds  reverence  for  all  the  important 


THE  INCA  KINGS  AND   PEOPLE  169 

things  relating  to  daily  life  and  common  food.  The  Incas 
worshiped  all  mountain  passes  as  places  where,  the 
hardest  part  of  the  journey  ended,  one  might  rest 
before  beginning  the  descent.  Even  the  Christian 
Indian  to-day  frequently  worships  at  shrines  built  on 
mountain  passes^  The  Inca  Indian  also  worshiped  the 
wind  and  running  water.  On  this  dry  and  cool  plateau 
plants  need  besides  soil  two  things  in  favorable  amounts, 
water  and  sunlight.  The  precious  water,  led  carefully 
out  over  the  fields  and  gardens,  was  an  object  of  great 
importance  and  therefore  of  worship.  The  lightning  and 
the  thunder  were  the  voices  of  unseen  spirits  and  were 
feared.  So  also,  the  Inca  Indian  feared  to  go  up  into  the 
highest  places  of  the  mountains,  for  the  mountain  sick- 
ness which  troubled  him  there  made  him  believe  that  the 
lofty  places  were  peopled  by  evil  spirits  which,  being 
angry  at  man's  intrusion,  drove  him  out  of  their  home 
with  sickness  and  pain. 

Prescott's  "Conquest  of  Peru."  The  boy  or  girl  who 
has  not  read  Prescott's  Conquest  of  Peru  has  yet  to  enjoy 
one  of  the  richest  and  most  fascinating  stories  of  history. 
In  that  work  the  great  American  historian  tells  in  a  simple 
way  the  story  of  the  Inca  life  and  religion.  Prescott  was 
especially  impressed  with  the  worship  of  the  Incas  and  the 
temples  they  erected  for  that  purpose.  He  described  par- 
ticularly the  Temple  of  the  Sun  in  Cuzco,  the  capital  of 
the  Incas,  where  the  kings  dwelt  and  where  all  the  people 
came  once  a  year  to  attend  a  great  feast  in  honor  of  the  sun. 

Some  Indian  Palaces  and  Temples.  The  photographs 
(Figs.  86  and  91)  give  one  an  idea  of  the  great  walls  in 
these  temples  and  the  great  size  of  the  stones  in  some  of 
them.  Fig.  90  shows  the  base  of  the  Royal  Palace.  The 
stones  are  all  well  trimmed  and  fitted  to  make  a  wall  which 
no  one  can  fail  to  admire. 


170     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


In  the  view  (Fig.  86)  is  shown  the  largest  stone  in  the 
palace.  Its  height  may  be  judged  from  the  Indian  who 
stands  beside  it.  It  has  twelve  angles  or  corners,  and  into 
each  another  stone  is  fitted  with  perfect  nicety.  So  accu- 
rately have  the  different  sides  of  each  stone  been  trimmed 
that  it  is  impossible  in  many  places  to  insert  the  point  of 
a  needle  between  two  faces  in  contact  with  each  other. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable  when  we  consider  the  tools 
with  which  these  men  worked.  They  were  not  acquainted 
with  the  use  of  steel  but  employed  a  chisel,  ax,  and 
hammer  made  of  impure  copper.  Pure  copper  is  soft  and 
cannot  in  its  natural  state  be  used  in  making  a  cutting  tool. 

But  these  Indians  knew 
how  to  take  impure  cop- 
per and  treat  it  so  as  to 
make  a  kind  of  bronze 
often  wrongly  described 
as  "tempered  copper." 
Another  very  remark- 
able thing  about  the  old 
buildings  of  the  Incas  is 
the  great  size  of  many 
of  the  stones  one  finds 
in  the  walls.  The  pho- 
tograph (Fig.  91)  shows 

FIG.  90.     Donkey  loaded  with  straw  for  one  of  the  largest  stones 
fuel,  on  street  in  Cuzco,  Peru.     The       used    in    building    the 

great  fort  (Sacsahua- 
man)  (Fig.  92)  that 
overlooks  Cuzco  from  the  summit  of  the  hill  on  the 
northern  edge  of  the  town.  This  stone  is  about  four- 
teen feet  high  and  has  been  estimated  to  weigh  a  hun- 
dred tons.  We  should  find  such  a  stone  exceedingly  hard  to 
move  even  with  all  the  large  hoisting  machinery  that  we 


The 

old  wall  to  the  left  is  part  of  the 

building  in  which  the  Inca 

kings  once  lived 


THE  INCA  KINGS   AND   PEOPLE 


171 


can  command.  To  the  men  of  ancient  Cuzco,  who  had 
no  such  machinery,  the  task  must  have  been  incredibly 
difficult. 

Even  the  streets  of  old  Cuzco  were  paved  by  the  indus- 
trious Incas.  From  the  quarries  about  the  city  paving 
blocks  were  gathered 
and  laid  down  in  regu- 
lar fashion,  just  as  we 
pave  a  city  to-day.  To 
supply  the  city  with 
water  a  long  aqueduct 
was  built,  several  miles 
of  it  consisting  of  a  tun- 
nel cut  part  of  the  way 
through  solid  rock.  The 
fact  that  these  old  canals 
and  tunnels  still  exist 
speaks  well  for  the  an- 
cient builders,  who  seem 


FIG.  91.     One  of  the  huge  stones  in  the 

walls  of  the  old  Inca  fort  (Sacsahua- 

mari)  near  the  city  of  Cuzco, 

Peru,  the  old  capital    of 

the  Incas 


to  have  built  as  the 
Romans  built,  not  for 
years  but  for  centuries, 
not  for  men  but  for  gods. 

The  Inca  kings  ordered  roads  to  be  built  to  the  four 
parts  of  their  empire.  They  were  made  very  carefully, 
as  was  the  rule  in  everything.  In  places  they  were  cut 
in  rock;  in  still  other  places  they  were  graded  and 
smoothed.  Through  the  desert,  where  shifting  sands 
make  road  building  expensive  and  where  the  sand  so 
quickly  covers  a  roadway,  they  erected  poles  and  piles  of 
stones  as  signs  of  the  way,  signos  del  camino,  as  they  are 
called  in  the  Spanish  to-day.  The  chief  defect  of  these 
highways  may  be  seen  at  stream  crossings,  where  the 
traveler  looks  in  vain  for  a  bridge.  Although  the  Incas 


172     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

were  familiar  with  the  keystone  they  never  learned  the 
secret  of  employing  it  in  the  making  of  a  stone  arch  which 
might  serve  for  a  bridge. 

Upon  the  imperial  highways  the  kings  themselves 
journeyed  to  see  the  different  parts  of  the  empire  and  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  people  so  that  they  might 
rule  more  justly,  somewhat  in  the  spirit  in  which  the 
President  of  the  United  States  now  travels  about.  The 


FIG.  92.     Walls  of  the  old  fort  at  Cuzco,  Peru,  on  the 
top  of  a  hill  near  the  town 

Inca  king  desired  to  let  the  people  know  that  he  was 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  all  kinds  of  men  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and  he  even  went  to  the  seat  of  war 
when  it  became  necessary  to  encourage  the  armies  to  bet- 
ter fighting. 

The  Inca  Empire.  Nearly  all  the  Inca  kings  attempted 
to  extend  the  boundaries  of  their  empire  by  war  and 
conquest.  At  the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards, 
about  1535,  a  vast  extent  of  country  was  governed  from 
Cuzco.  The  empire  ran  from  Ecuador  on  the  north  to 
central  Chile  on  the  south,  and  from  the  Pacific  shore  to 
the  very  edge  of  the  tropical  plains  east  of  the  Andes. 


THE   INCA  KINGS   AND   PEOPLE  173 

On  the  north  the  Spaniards  found  the  Quitos,  a  race  of 
Indians  almost  as  remarkable  for  their  great  temples, 
their  religion,  and  their  intelligence  as  the  Incas  on  the 
south.  These  fought  with  great  courage  and  successfully 
resisted  all  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  Incas  to  conquer 
their  country.  Into  central  Chile  the  Inca  kings  sent 
some  of  their  best  armies  for  the  conquest  of  the  Arau- 
canians,  a  fierce  and  warlike  people.  But  here  again 
they  met  with  a  resistance  so  strong  that  they  had  to 
stop  fighting  and  content  themselves  with  the  northern 
part  of  Chile,  the  arid  region  now  known  as  Atacama. 

Although  fine  armies  were  sent  eastward  to  conquer 
the  Indians  of  the  tropical  forests  and  the  plains,  and 
though  forts  and  roads  were  built  in  that  direction  for 
the  same  purpose,  the  Incas  never  were  able  to  extend 
their  empire  very  far  eastward,  not  because  the  Indians 
of  the  plains  fought  better  than  the  Inca  armies  but 
because  the  unhealthful  country  itself  was  their  worst 
enemy.  Malarial  fever  and  many  other  tropical  dis- 
eases as  well  broke  out  among  the  soldiers ;  they  could  not 
withstand  the  stinging  insects  which  are  found  in  great 
numbers  on  the  plains;  the  climate  is  exceedingly  hot 
and  the  air  so  damp  that  the  heat  is  felt  much  more 
than  in  a  dry  country;  and  the  forest  itself  is  marked  by 
tangled  undergrowth,  trackless  expanses,  and  dangerous 
animals.  It  is  easy  to  see  therefore  that  the  Inca  empire 
had  its  boundaries  determined  as  much  by  the  nature  of 
the  country  as  by  the  kind  of  people  who  resisted  the 
armies  of  Cuzco. 

The  Inca  Religion.  In  those  valleys  in  which  the 
people  fought  against  the  Incas  they  did  so  chiefly  because 
they  did  not  like  the  Inca  religion.  The  Incas  demanded 
that  all  conquered  peoples  should  worship  the  sun  or  be 
punished;  but,  said  the  people  of  the  coastal  valleys, 


174     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

even  a  fool  could  see  that  the  sun  was  an  object  to  be 
hated  and  feared,  not  to  be  worshiped  and  loved.  For 
did  it  not  wither  their  corn  and  dry  up  their  fields  and 
burn  the  earth?  No,  as  for  them,  they  were  not  going 
to  accept  a  religion  in  which  they  had  to  worship  the  sun. 
Rather  would  they  keep  their  old  religion,  in  which  they 
worshiped  water  and  fish,  the  one  because  it  gave  life  to 
the  earth,  the  other  because  it  supplied  food  to  the  people. 

The  reason  for  this  strong  difference  of  opinion  is  easy 
to  see.  The  Inca  religion  grew  up  on  the  plateau  where 
it  is  so  cool  that  the  sun  is  desired  and  loved,  while  the 
people  in  the  low  coast  valleys  lived  in  a  hot  country 
where  the  sun's  effects  are  often  destructive  to  crops.  At 
last  the  difficulty  was  overcome  by  a  compromise.  The 
people  of  the  coast  were  allowed  still  to  worship  water  and 
fish  if  they  chose,  but  they  must  also  build  temples 
to  the  sun  and  worship  in  them.  Thus  there  grew  up 
along  the  coast  a  most  curious  mixture  of  Inca  and  Yunca 
religion,  one  part  consisting  of  what  the  people  wanted  to 
believe  and  the  other  part  of  what  they  had  to  believe. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  many  people  eagerly 
accepted  the  Inca  rule.  This  was  due  entirely  to  the  fine 
systems  of  irrigation  which  the  Incas  always  established 
in  a  conquered  province  and  to  the  good  and  wise  laws 
they  always  made.  It  was  really  better  to  belong  to 
the  empire  and  to  be  protected  and  ruled  by  a  wise 
king  than  to  be  continually  at  war  with  quarrelsome 
neighbors.  There  was  also  something  splendid  in  the 
religion  of  the  Incas.  Its  rites  and  ceremonies  were 
grand  and  impressive,  its  prayers  were  about  food  and 
water  and  the  sun,  and  all  these  things  pleased  people 
for  whom  life  held  few  pleasures  except  the  commonest, 
and  to  whom  the  chief  concern  was  the  getting  of  their 
daily  bread,  fairly  wrung  from  a  stubborn  earth. 


THE  INCA  KINGS   AND   PEOPLE  175 

The  Cruel  Wrongs  of  the  Spanish.  With  the  arrival 
of  the  Spaniards  in  Peru  there  was  brought  about  a 
complete  change  in  the  life  and  religion  of  the  people 
within  the  empire  of  the  Incas.  The  Spaniards  easily 
took  possession  of  Cuzco,  for  they  had  firearms  while  the 
Indians  had  only  the  simplest  kinds  of  arms— stones  and 
knives.  The  last  king  of  the  Incas,  Atahualpa,  was  tried 
and  cruelly  put  to  death.  Some  of  the  temples  were  later 
torn  down  and  the  spaces  between  the  stones  searched 
for  gold,  the  altars  were  despoiled  of  all  their  ornaments 
of  gold  and  silver,  the  people  robbed  of  their  possessions, 
and  other  wrongs  inflicted.  Men  and  boys  were  com- 
pelled to  work  like  slaves  in  the  silver  and  gold  mines  in 
order  that  the  inhuman  thirst  for  wealth  on  the  part  of 
the  Spaniards  might  be  gratified.  At  last  a  better  spirit 
came  to  rule  among  them.  The  Indians  were  given  some 
rights:  they  were  no  longer  compelled  to  work  in  the 
mines;  property  could  not  be  stolen  from  them;  they 
could  no  longer  be  abused  and  whipped. 

With  all  these  changes  came  a  change  in  the  religion 
of  the  Indians.  They  no  longer  worshiped  in  the  temples 
of  their  fathers.  Priests  from  Spain  established  the 
Catholic  religion  and  built  great  churches  and  cathedrals; 
some  of  them,  indeed,  were  built  on  the  ruins  of  former 
temples  (Figs.  88  and  89).  In  place  of  the  rites  and  cere- 
monials of  the  Inca  worship  of  the  sun  came  the  prayers, 
the  processions,  and  the  solemn  music  of  the  Christian 
religion  as  practiced  by  the  Catholic  Church.  To-day 
the  ancient  religion  is  in  many  places  no  longer  even  a 
memory.  If  one  steps  into  a  cathedral  in  La  Paz  or 
Lima  or  Cochabamba,  one  finds  within  it  many  Indian 
worshipers  whose  god  is  no  longer  the  sun,  and  who  join 
in  prayers  not  so  much  for  rain  and  full  streams  as  for  the 
faith,  hope,  and  love  of  the  Christian  religion. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  PLAINS  AND  INDIANS  OF  EL  GRAN  CHACO 

The  Empty  Spaces  of  the  Gran  Chaco.  The  mystery 
of  that  large  blank  space  on  the  maps  of  the  Argentine 
and  of  Bolivia  that  represents  El  Gran  Chaco  (Plate  II) 
is  realized  by  only  a  few  people.  There  are  tracts  as  large 
as  the  state  of  New  York  of  which  we  know  practically 
nothing;  in  others,  white  settlements  are  absent  for 
hundreds  of  square  miles;  in  still  other  places  in  the 
Gran  Chaco  live  Indian  tribes  of  which  little  more  than 
the  name  is  known.  Government  enterprise,  however,  is 
now  opening  up  the  best  sections  of  the  Chaco.  The 
Argentine  is  spending  large  sums  in  an  effort  to  colonize 
the  region.  Already  some  of  its  rivers  have  been  explored 
and  improved,  and  it  is  expected  that  two  railway  lines 
will  soon  be  built  through  it.  Improved  means  for 
trade  will  transform  this  land  of  mystery  into  a  settled 
region,  for  its  pastures  and  its  soil  are  rich  though  its 
water  supply  is  not  everywhere  good.  Along  the  foot 
of  the  mountains,  where  water  may  be  obtained  from  the 
streams  before  they  have  begun  to  fail,  plantations  of 
rice,  sugar  (Fig.  93),  and  cotton  are  already  established 
as  far  as  the  railway  affords  a  means  for  cheaper  trans- 
portation (Fig.  94).  Large  tracts  near  the  Paraguay 
have  recently  been  purchased  for  cattle  ranching.  Amer- 
ican cowboys  have  been  imported  to  care  for  the  herds 
brought  in  from  the  south  (Fig.  96).  It  will  not  be  long 
before  at  least  short  railway  lines  will  extend  westward 
from  the  Paraguay  and  open  up  a  vast  cattle  country 
(Fig.  95).  The  quebracho  forests  are  another  source  of 
wealth  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Chaco  (Fig.  97).  They 

176 


PLAINS  AND  INDIANS  OF  EL  GRAN  CHACO     177 

furnish  a  hard  wood  used  for  railway  ties  and  fence  posts, 
and  from  the  wood  a  tannin  extract  is  produced.  Over 
ten  million  dollars'  worth  of  quebracho  wood  and  extract 
are  exported  each  year.  Half  of  this  goes  to  the  United 
States.  The  tannin  is  made  in  little  factories  on  the  edge 
of  the  Chaco  and  in  the  neighboring  Argentine  provinces 
of  Santa  Fe  and  Santiago  del  Estero.  Large  foreign 
companies  have  in  the  past  few  years  begun  production 
on  a  big  scale.  One  company  employs  between  four  and 
five  thousand  men. 

The  Rivers  of  the  Gran  Chaco.  The  Gran  Chaco  is 
so  large  that  it  is  not  contained  in  any  one  republic.  It 
extends  through  Bolivia,  Paraguay,  and  the  Argentine, 
where  these  meet  in  a  common  boundary  at  the  northern 
end  of  the  Argentine  (Plate  II).  About  the  borders  of 
this  vast  tract  men  have  traveled  for  exploration  and 
trade,  have  seen  the  Indians  who  inhabit  the  country, 
and  along  two  lines  have  crossed  it  in  some  numbers  on 
business. 

Since  the  rivers  play  so  important  a  part  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  new  country,  it  is  worth  while  to  see  what  the 
river  systems  of  the  Gran  Chaco  are  like.  The  Paraguay 
is  the  chief  river  on  the  eastern  border  of  the  region,  and 
has  its  sources  far  toward  the  north,  well  within  the 
heart  of  the  South  American  continent.  It  is  so  large  as 
to  be  navigable  two  thousand  miles  above  Buenos  Aires 
to  the  port  of  Corumba,  and  smaller  boats  go  even  farther. 
It  is  therefore  one  of  the  routes  of  trade,  the  outlet  for  a 
vast  region  where  rubber,  cacao,  and  hides  are  produced. 
From  the  west  it  receives  several  tributaries  almost  as 
long  as  the  main  stream ;  from  the  east  no  rivers  of  any  size 
join  the  Paraguay. 

Among  the  rivers  that  join  the  Paraguay  from  the  west 
the  Bermejo  and  the  Pilcomayo  are  the  most  important. 

12 


178     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

The  Pilcomayo  is  by  far  the  longer  but  the  Bermejo  alone 
has  been  used  for  trade.     The  head  of  navigation  on  the 


FIG.  93.     Sugar  works  at  Ledesma,  north-central  Argentine,  near 
the  border  of  the  Chaco  country 

Bermejo  is  Oran,  and  thither  canoes  and  flat-bottomed 
boats  in  considerable  numbers  formerly  came  from 
Buenos  Aires,  more  than  eighteen  hundred  miles  away. 
The  journey  was  extremely  difficult  owing  to  the  shifting 
sand  bars,  the  low  water,  the  great  heat,  and  the  pest  of 
insects.  The  expense  involved  in  carrying  goods  by  river 
boats  was  enormous,  and  only  the  remoteness  of  the  prov- 
inces of  Jujuy,  Salta,  and  Tarija,  and  the  length  of  other 
routes  to  them,  made  men  take  the  Bermejo  route.  The 
government  has  recently  deepened  it  so  that  it  has  a  reg- 
ular steamboat  service  for  some  distance  above  its  mouth. 
The  Mysterious  Pilcomayo  River.  The  great  neighbor 
of  the  Bermejo,  the  Pilcomayo,  has  long  been  one  -of 
the  geographical  conundrums  of  South  America.  Both 
its  headwaters  and  its  mouth  have  been  known  for 
many  years,  but  the  middle  course  of  the  river  has  re- 
mained almost  unknown,  on  account  of  the  swamps  and  the 
fierce  Indians.  Crevaux,  the  Stanley  of  South  America, 
whose  explorations  have  been  among  the  most  important 


PLAINS  AND  INDIANS  OF  EL  GRAN  CHACO      179 

of  any  made  there,  lost  his  life  trying  to  discover  the 
secrets  of  the  great  river.  While  making  his  way  down 
the  stream  in  1882,  he  was  treacherously  killed  by  Tobas 
Indians,  who  live  in  force  along  the  middle  course  of  the 
stream.  Eleven  other  explorers  in  turn  met  defeat  in 
attempting  what  Crevaux  failed  to  do.  In  1898  Ibaretta, 
the  last  of  them,  met  the  common  fate. 

But  one  man  has  traveled  from  the  headwaters  of  the 
river  to  its  mouth.  Thouar,  a  Frenchman,  went  from 
the  upper  Pilcomayo  to  Asuncion  on  the  Paraguay.  He 
and  his  men  were  obliged  to  eat  their  mules  and  dogs, 
and  were  found  by  hunters  in  a  half-starving  condition 
near  the  mouth  of  the  great  river.  So  difficult  had  been 
their  journey  that  they  had  no  energy  left  to  look  about 
them  and  see  what  the  country  was  like,  and  but  little 
was  learned  from  them.  Pages,  a  captain  of  the  Argentine 
navy,  tried  to  ascend  the  river,  building  a  series  of  dams 
below  his  small  steamer  to  secure  navigable  water,  but 
he  was  obliged  to  abandon  his  vessel  in  the  marshes  and 
at  last  barely  escaped  with  his  life. 


FIG.  94.     Iron  pipe  hauled  on  mule  carts  from  the  end  of  the  railway 
in  northern  Argentine  to  the  oil  fields  of  south-central  Bolivia 


i8o     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

In  1905  Gunnar  Lange  undertook  to  make  a  thorough 
study  of  the  geography  of  the  Pilcomayo,  to  see  if  the 


FIG.  95.    Chaco  cattle  in  the  desert  of  Atacama,  after  a  twelve  days' 

journey  across  the  Cordillera  between  Salta,  Argentine, 

and  San  Pedro  de  Atacama,  Chile 

river  were  at  all  navigable,  and  to  discover  its  exact  nature 
as  a  route  of  trade.  The  party  under  Lange  consisted 
of  thirty  men.  Beef  animals  and  canned  provisions  in 
large  quantities  were  sent  ahead  of  the  expedition  to  the 
swamp  region  of  the  lower  Pilcomayo  where  the  real  work' 
began.  Lange  crossed  the  salt  swamps  with  their  inter- 
lacing streams  by  using  oxen  to  drag  the  boats.  The 
expedition  finally  reached  a  point  above  the  swamps 
seven  hundred  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river.  So 
salty  were  the  swamps  that  drinking  water  was  obtained 
with  the  greatest  difficulty. 

The  expedition  discovered  that  the  banks  of  the  stream 
for  seven  hundred  miles  are  lined  with  dense  forests  of 
both  hard  and  soft  woods.  On  low  mounds  among  the 
marshes  and  on  higher  ground  away  from  the  river  are 


PLAINS  AND  INDIANS  OF  EL  GRAN  CHACO     181 

splendid  pastures.  Were  a  channel  opened  by  dredging 
and  the  swamps  drained  it  would  be  possible  to  turn  vast 
tracts  of  the  Pilcomayo  valley  into  grazing  land  and  pro- 
duce large  numbers  of  cattle.  At  present  cattle  would 
have  to  be  driven  five  hundred  miles  to  the  Paraguay 
through  a  country  where  pasturage  is  not  always  easy  to 
secure,  and  where  the  water  is  stagnant  and  unfit  to  drink. 
The  Road  to  Santa  Cruz.  There  is  a  strip  of  country 
across  the  northern  Gran  Chaco  that  is  now  well  known 
because  of  the  fact  that  through  it  Santa  Cruz  de  la  Sierra, 
one  of  the  larger  cities  of  Bolivia,  finds  an  outlet  to  the 
sea.  The  water  supply  over  this  route  is  not  good,  and 
sometimes  cats  called  "tigers"  kill  the  oxen  and  increase 
the  delay.  By  oxcart  it  takes  from  two  to  five  months 


FIG.  96.    Gauchos  of  the  Chaco  at  Embarcacion,  northern  Argentine. 

The  heavy  cowhide  flaps  on  the  saddle  front  are  a  protection 

against  the  thorny  shrubs  through  which  the  cowboy 

must  ride  in  rounding  up  his  stock  for  the 

long  drive  to  the  end  of  the  railway 


1 82     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

to  cross  the  Gran  Chaco;  and  about  two  weeks  if  one  is 
fortunate  enough  to  get  mules.     If  the  road  is  very  bad 


FIG.  97.    Quebracho  logs,  'northern  Argentine 

goods  cannot  be  moved  at  all.  The  oxcarts  used  here 
are  great,  lumbering,  two-wheeled  vehicles  built  very 
strong  on  account  of  the  ruts,  roots,  swamps,  and  stream 
crossings  without  number. 

The  Indians  of  the  drier  regions  manage  to  sustain 
themselves  by  using  water  stored  in  the  vertical  leaves 
of  the  cactus  and  by  squeezing  out  the  juice  of  the  large 
pulpy  water-potatoes.  Both  travelers  and  natives  suffer 
much  from  the  mosquitos  and  also  from  the  barbs  with 
which  all  the  plants  are  armed.  The  most  acceptable 
present  to  a  Chaco  Indian  is  a  shirt,  which  is  at  once 
a  cover  at  night  and  a  partial  shield  from  the  thorns  and 
saw  grasses  by  day. 

The  Trade  of  Santa  Cruz.  One  wonders  why  in  the 
face  of  these  great  difficulties  people  ever  came  to  settle 


PLAINS  AND  INDIANS  OF  EL  GRAN  CHACO      183 

at  Santa  Cruz,  one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  Bolivia  and  yet 
one  of  the  most  remote  from  the  sea.  It  was  founded 
by  Catholic  missionaries  and  for  a  long  time  was  a  center 
of  religious  teaching.  Its  full  name  signifies  "  Holy  Cross 
of  the  Sierras."  Its  importance  from  the  first  was  due  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  streams  radiate  from  this  locality, 
thus  giving  exploration  parties  the  choice  of  several  routes 
through  the  river  plains  of  the  upper  Mamore.  It  early 
became  the  center  of  a  cattle  industry,  for  which  the 
grassy  plains  about  it  are  admirably  fitted,  and  on  account 
of  its  position  near  the  mountains  it  has  the  very  great 
advantage  of  a  climate  cooler  than  the  plains  towns 
enjoy.  Since  the  rubber  tree  has  become  so  important 
Santa  Cruz  has  grown  rapidly.  Its  position  at  the  head- 
waters of  the  Mamore  gives  it  an  important  part  in 
the  trade  of  that  stream  and  its  neighbors, — the  Yapacani, 
Rio  Grande,  and  others.  Though  most  of  the  Bolivian 
rubber  is  sent  down  the  Madeira  and  the  Amazon  to  the 
Atlantic,  a  part  of  it  is  taken  in  canoes,  batelaos,  and 
oxcarts  to  Santa  Cruz,  where  it  pays  the  bills  of  the 
rubber  men  who  have  bought  goods  of  the  merchants  of 
Santa  Cruz.  Thence  these  merchants  ship  it  by  oxcart 
to  the  Paraguay  and  river  steamers  deliver  it  to  the  docks 
of  Buenos  Aires. 

The  Fierce  Tobas  Indians.  Few  Indian  tribes  of  South 
America  are  really  dangerous  to  whites,  but  of  this 
number  the  wildest  groups  among  the  Tobas  might  well 
stand  at  the  head  of  the  list.  The  whole  group  numbers 
about  twenty  thousand  and  its  members  live  principally 
along  the  middle  Pilcomayo.  A  tribe  of  the  Tobas 
living  in  the  Argentine  Chaco  have  a  more  peaceful 
character,  some  of  them  working  for  part  of  the  year 
upon  the  sugar  plantations  of  the  whites;  others  living 
in  the  recesses  of  the  forests  and  swamps  manage  to 


1 84     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

resist  all  attempts  at  conquest.  Although  one  military 
expedition  has  been  sent  against  them,  they  have  never 
been  reduced  and  are  still  one  of  the  most  serious  diffi- 
culties to  be  overcome  in  the  development  of  these  remote 
grasslands.  Early  in  1913  a  half  dozen  whites  near  the 
lower  Bermejo  were  killed  by  Tobas.  They  are  typical 
red  men,  tall,  muscular,  bony,  with  long  black  hair. 
They  are  extremely  wary  and  have  few  words  either 
among  themselves  or  for  the  stranger. 

' '  We  saw  four  Indians  come  stealthily  down  to  the  bank 
armed  with  long  lances.  Then  lying  down  among  the 
reeds,  they  gazed  silently  into  the  water  till  they  saw  some 
big  fish  pass  by,  when,  with  wonderful  skill,  they  speared 
them  one  after  the  other,  and  threw  them  on  the  bank. 
Next  they  lit  a  fire,  roasted  the  fish  they  had  caught,  and 
devoured  them.  This  done,  they  picked  up  their  weapons 
and  crept  back  into  the  woods  as  noiselessly  and  stealthily 
as  they  had  come.  The  whole  time — some  three  hours  — 
not  one  of  these  men  spoke  a  word ;  they  gave  the  neces- 
sary directions  to  each  other  by  slight  inclinations  of  the 
head  only."  (Knight.) 

In  the  simple  and  primitive  life  of  most  tribes  of  Chaco 
Indians,  the  customs  and  habits  closely  reflect  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  region.  When  the  cold  south  wind  blows 
they  take  off  their  blankets  and  shake  them,  saying  that 
they  are  shaking  out  the  sickness,  colds,  and  influenza 
which  this  wind  always  brings.  They  sprinkle  the  blood 
of  a  duck  in  order  to  make  rain  in  their  dry  scrub  country. 
When  a  rainstorm  rises  they  wait  until  it  has  passed  over- 
head; then  they  push  with  their  hands  and  shout,  "Away! 
Away ! "  On  cloudy  days  an  old  man  holds  a  firebrand  up 
toward  the  sun  that  it  may  shine  again.  Kyaiya  is  the 
name  of  a  feast  which  is  held  each  year  to  welcome  back 
the  spring,  with  its  balmy  winds  and  green  foliage. 


CHAPTER   X 
PARAGUAY 

A  Country  that  gives  its  Name  to  a  Tea.  It  has  been 
said  by  a  traveler  that  if  all  the  tea  that  grows  in 
Paraguay  were  brewed  at  one  time  there  would  be 
more  than  enough  to  furnish  a  cupful  to  every  man, 
woman,g|nd  child  in  the  world.  It  is  one  of  the  chief 
products,  of  Paraguay,  and  so  much  has  been  raised 
there  and  shipped  to  other  countries  that  many  call  it 
Paraguay  tea.  In  South  America  it  is  called  mate.  It 
grows  in  groVes  and  even  in  forests  of  tea.  Think  of  a 
land  where  tea  is  so  abundant  that  there  are  hundreds 
of  square  miles  of  it  growing  wild!  In  some  places  it 
covers  all  the  mountain  slopes  in  woods  known  as 
yerbales.  At  one  time  the  Jesuit  fathers  cultivated  it  in 
plantations  so  as  to  improve  its  quality,  but  since  their 
expulsion  there  has  been  no  real  system  of  cultivation 
and  the  trees  grow  wild. 

Paraguay  tea  makes  a  very  cheap  beverage  and  is  said 
to  have  excellent  effects  without  harming  the  nerves  of 
the  people  who  drink  it.  It  is  used  in  Brazil,  where  it  is 
now  grown  for  the  market  in  greater  quantities  than  in 
Paraguay;  the  gaucho  of  the  Argentine  pampas  finds  it 
an  almost  indispensable  drink;  and  even  the  distant 
Tehuelche  Indians  of  the  Patagonian  plains  use  it  in  con- 
siderable quantities.  Perhaps  at  some  time  in  the  future 
its  use  will  become  much  more  general  and  we  may  find 
ourselves  drinking  tea  from  Paraguay  and  Brazil  as  well 
as  from  China  and  Japan. 

The  Orange  Groves  of  Paraguay.  Scarcely  less  wonder- 
ful than  the  forests  of  Paraguay  tea  are  the  great  orange 

185 


1 86     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

groves.  Oranges  are  so  plentiful  there  that  they  are  fed 
to  the  pigs  as  the  farmers  of  Illinois  feed  corn  to  their 
live  stock.  On  the  streets  of  some  of  the  Paraguayan 
towns  one  may  buy  thirty  oranges  for  a  cent.  Oranges 
are  handled  like  potatoes  or  wheat  in  this  country  and  not 
in  the  delicate  way  in  which  we  handle  them  in  the  United 
States.  If  one  orange  is  harmed  there  are  a  dozen  to  take 
its  place;  and  where  thirty  may  be  had  for  a  cent  who 
cares  whether  there  is  one  orange  more  or  less  ?  One  finds 
oranges  and  orange  groves  everywhere :  along  the  river 
banks,  about  the  country  and  city  houses,  in  parks,  in  the 
forest,  qaa  the  hillsides;  wild  oranges,  cultivated  oranges; 
oranges  so  plentiful  that  they  belong  to  any  one  who  cares 
to  pick  them  up.  Their  cost  depends  merely  on  the  labor 
of  gathering  them,  which  amounts  to  almost  nothing. 

Sometimes  steamers  come  up  the  great  rivers  of  Para- 
guay and  take  on  a  load  of  oranges  to  sell  to  the  people 
of  the  Argentine  or  Uruguay;  and  then  the  river  front 
presents  a  pretty  sight.  Great  loads  of  golden  oranges  are 
carted  to  the  river  bank  and  women  begin  loading  them 
into  baskets  in  which  they  carry  them  on  board  the  boat. 
Dozens  and  sometimes  hundreds  of  women  may  be  at 
work  at  one  time  taking  the  place  of  the  machinery 
with  which  boats  are  generally  loaded. 

A  Country  of  Few  Men.  If  we  think  of  the  size  of 
Paraguay  we  call  it  next  to  the  smallest  country  of  South 
America;  but  if  we  think  of  the  number  of  people  in  it 
we  say  that  Paraguay  is  the  smallest  of  all  South  American 
countries.  There  are  fewer  people  in  Paraguay  than  there 
are  in  Ecuador  or  even  in  Uruguay.  But  a  more  peculiar 
thing  than  the  small  number  of  people  in  Paraguay  is  the 
small  number  of  men.  A  moment  ago  we  read  that  women 
load  the  orange  boats,  and  if  we  should  travel  in  Paraguay 
we  would  at  once  be  struck  with  the  fact  that  women  do 


PARAGUAY  187 

almost  all  the  work  of  the  country,  whether  it  is  easy 
or  hard.  Paraguay  is  essentially  a  country  of  women. 

It  came  about  in  this  way.  At  one  time  Paraguay  had 
a  very  despotic  ruler  who  governed  the  people  harshly  and 
quarreled  with  his  neighbors.  Finally  he  got  into  serious 
trouble  with  Brazil,  the  Argentine,  and  Uruguay,  and 
with  all  of  them  at  the  same  time!  So  these  countries 
banded  together,  collected  their  gunboats  and  armies, 
sailed  up  the  Paraguay  River,  and  then  marched  out  over 
the  country  and  drove  the  Paraguayan  army  from  one 
place  to  another  until  it  was  entirely  destroyed.  So 
many  men  lost  their  lives  during  this  war  that  when  it 
was  ended  there  were  scarcely  enough  men  in  the  country 
to  do  its  business.  Three  fourths  of  the  whole  population 
had  been  destroyed  or  driven  out,  and  when  the  war  ended 
there  were  only  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
people  in  the  country.  This  war  lasted  from  1865  until 
1870.  Since  then  the  population  has  been  steadily  increas- 
ing and  now  numbers  but  little  less  than  a  million. 

Physical  Features.  The  western  portion  of  Paraguay 
consists  for  the  most  part  of  flat  plains  upon  whose  surface 
the  water  stands  during  the  wet  season  (Plates  I,  VII,  and 
IX).  Every  year  when  the  rivers  are  in  flood  the  banks 
are  washed  away,  the  river  overflows,  and  the  region  is 
covered  with  water  for  miles  and  miles.  This  makes  the 
country  very  unhealthful  and  fevers,  especially  malaria, 
are  common.  Also,  the  farther  north  one  goes  the  hotter 
it  becomes  and  the  more  difficult  it  is  for  the  white  man 
to  make  his  home.  Southern  Paraguay  is  cooler  and  its 
climate  has  been  described  as  spring-like,  but  whether  or 
not  one  calls  it  spring-like  depends  upon  the  spring  one 
is  accustomed  to  have  at  home  (Plates  V  and  VI).  Per- 
haps it  is  spring-like  to  a  Cuban  or  a  Guatemalan,  but  to 
an  American  it  seems  decidedly  tropical.  Nowhere  in 


1 88     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Paraguay  are  there  high  mountains,  but  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  country  there  are  mountains  that  rise  two 
thousand  or  more  feet,  their  tops  covered  with  forest. 

But  little  is  known  of  the  interior  of  Paraguay  except 
that  in  the  remote  parts  of  the  country  live  Indian 
tribes  that  have  scarcely  ever  seen  a  white  man  except  the 
slave  raiders  who  range  the  forest  capturing  the  natives 
to  work  on  the  rubber  plantations.  Once  in  a  while  a 
white  traveler  makes  an  expedition  into  the  northern 
country  and  after  terrible  hardships  comes  back  to  tell 
of  the  fever-ridden  land  where  the  climate  is  bad  and 
where  the  few  people  are  very  much  afraid  of  the  whites. 

The  River  that  gave  its  Name  to  the  Country.  Among 
the  rivers  of  Paraguay  we  should  learn  first  of  all  of  the 
one  for  which  the  country  is  named.  Running  for  the 
most  part  through  a  flat  country,  the  Paraguay  has  no 
falls  or  rapids  in  its  course;  it  has,  however,  so  many  turns 
and  curves  that  the  distances  from  place  to  place  some- 
times measure  several  times  as  far  by  river  as  in  a  direct 
line.  Steamers  go  up  the  Paraguay  to  Corumba,  Brazil, 
and  very  small  steamers  and  launches  even  go  up  as  far  as 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  98.     Asuncion,  capital  and  largest  city  of  Paraguay 


PARAGUAY  189 

Cuyaba,  where  all  direct  connection  with  the  outside 
world  ends  and  where  one  plunges  into  the  vast  forested 
interior  of  South  America.  The  course  of  the  river  is 
most  uncertain  and  with  every  flood  the  pilots  of  the 
river  boats  must  learn  the  channel  all  over  again,  for 
the  curves  and  the  sand  banks  change  their  position  con- 
stantly. Slowly  the  railway  is  being  pushed  up  the 
valley,  but  it  will  take  some  years  to  reach  Corumba. 
Then  it  will  be  easy  to  travel  into  the  very  heart  of 
Paraguay,  and  explorers  and  merchants  will  make  known 
to  us  what  the  great  interior  spaces  contain. 

The  Great  Falls  of  the  Parana.  The  most  interesting 
river  in  South  America  after  the  great  Amazon  is  the 
Parana  (Fig.  26),  whose  volume  is  greater  than  that  of 
the  Mississippi  and  whose  basin  contains  falls  that  rival 
Niagara.  The  muddy  flood  of  water  that  forms  the 
Parana  comes  down  through  a  great  primeval  wilderness 
of  swamp  and  forest,  and  the  borders  of  the  stream  are 
lined  with  dense  tropical  vegetation.  In  the  main  the 
lower  course  of  the  river  is  very  flat  and  boats  may  easily 
sail  against  the  current.  From  the  deck  of  a  river  steamer 
one  sees  distant  forest-covered  mountain  ranges  wit-h 
hazy  blue  summits  and  indistinct  outlines.  Beyond  the 
end  of  the  steamer  journey  one  comes  to  the  falls  of  the 
Parana,  also  called  the  "Seven  Falls"  because  in  time  of 
low  water  the  broad  river  is  split  up  into  a  number  of 
separate  streams.  Below  the  falls  the  river  runs  in  a 
narrow  gorge  of  great  depth.  Farther  up,  the  Parana 
is  joined  by  the  Iguassu  River.  Six  miles  above  the 
meeting  place  of  these  two  streams  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  falls  in  the  world,  the  falls  of  Iguassu,  the  Indian 
name  for  "Great  River."  The  water  rushes  over  a  cjiff 
of  ancient  lava  more  than  two  hundred  feet  high,  and  the 
roar  of  the  falling  waters  may  be  heard  for  miles. 


I  go     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


The  Life  of  the  Paraguayan  People.  Paraguay  is 
far  from  the  sea  and  its  people  are  so  shut  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  that  we  should  scarcely  expect  them  to 
live  like  the  inhabitants  of  more  fortunate  places.  The 
greater  part  of  the  people  of  Paraguay  are  Indians 
^__^^^  or  mixed  descend- 
ants of  the  Guar- 

*»«-««*«~*^-<*«^  ani  stock.     They 

V^m  live     scattered 

I  »*^^^^M»  throughout   the 

western  or  low- 
land section  of 

Jp9|k  the   country   in 

W  little  groups  and 

villages.  Each 
village  consists 
of  huts  with 
thatched  roofs  and 
walls  of  mud  or 
sticks  and  poles. 
The  walls  need 
not  be  thick,  for 
it  is  never  cold  in 
Paraguay  as  it  is 
in  the  northern 
part  of  the  United 
States.  The  Par- 


t 


Courtesy  of  W.   D.   Boyce 

FIG.  99.     A  Paraguayan  woman  smoking 


aguayan  babies  play  on  the  mud  floors  of  the  huts  and 
out  in  the  sunshine  often  without  any  clothing,  and  men 
and  women  wear  only  light  cotton  clothes.  At  night 
those  who  live  in  huts  sleep  in  grass  hammocks  hung  from 
the  roof.  To  a  large  extent  the  people  depend  upon 
fruits  for  their  food,  and  chief  among  these  are  oranges. 
Another  common  food  is  the  manioc.  It  is  a  root  with  a 


PARAGUAY  191 

white  mealy  interior  that  tastes  somewhat  like  a  mixture 
of  flour  and  potatoes.  It  is  not  so  pleasing  to  the  taste 
as  our  potato,  but  the  people  use  it-  quite  as  much  as  the 
potato  is  used  in  America. 

It  takes  the  traveler  a  long  time  to  become  accustomed 
to  the  general  use  of  tobacco  in  Paraguay.  Women, 
and  even  children  and  babies,  learn  to  smoke  (Fig.  99). 
It  shocks  one  to  see  a  pretty  girl  walking  along  the  street 
puffing  away  at  a  big  fat  cigar  as  if  her  life  depended  upon 
it.  Tobacco  is  one  of  the  important  products  of  the 
country.  It  is  grown  in  great  quantities  and  sold  in  the 
form  of  cigars  or  cigarettes  or  in  great  rolls  of  twisted 
leaves.  It  is  very  cheap,  of  rather  poor  quality,  and  some 
of  it  is  almost  worthless. 

Besides  the  picking  of  oranges  and  the  gathering  of 
mate  or  Paraguay  tea  the  people  of  Paraguay  herd  cattle 
on  grassy  tracts  near  the  river.  Most  of  the  cattle  are 
slaughtered  for  use  in  Paraguay,  but  in  small  numbers 
they  are  also  shipped  in  river  steamers  to  the  countries 
of  the  south,  where  they  are  killed  and  dressed  for  the 
frozen-meat  market  or  used  as  fresh  beef. 

The  only  large  cities  are  Asuncion  (Fig.  98),  the  capital, 
with  ninety  thousand  people,  Villa  Rica  with  twenty-five 
thousand,  Conception  with  fifteen  thousand,  and  Villa  del 
Pilar  with  ten  thousand,  and  these  are  very  'small  as  most 
cities  go.  Indeed,  except  for  Asuncion  they  are  mere 
villages  of  very  poor  people.  Even  in  the  capital  there 
are  few  well-kept  houses  or  offices.  The  greater  part  of 
the  city  consists  of  thatched,  mud-walled  cabins.  They 
have  a  squalid  appearance  relieved  only  by  the  smooth 
curve  of  the  river  bank  and  the  wooded  hillslopes  over- 
looking the  city. 


CHAPTER  XI 

URUGUAY:   THE   SMALLEST  COUNTRY   IN 
SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Sparse  Population  of  South  America.    It  is  one  of 

the  odd  features  of  some  of  the  South  American  republics 
that  they  should  have  such  a  small  number  of  people. 
Ecuador  and  Bolivia  are  alike  in  this  respect,  and  even 
more  conspicuous  are  the  republics  of  Paraguay  and 
Uruguay.  In  the  United  States  the  strong  and  continuous 
westward  movement  of  settlers  from  the  Atlantic  coast 
made  each  new  group  feel  that  it  sprang  from  a  common 
stock,  and  even  if  the  bond  at  times  became  weak,  still 
there  was  a  feeling  of  unity  that  has  grown  with  the 
passing  of  time  until  to-day  we  are  a  solid  nation  of 
many  millions  even  if  we  are  spread  rather  thinly  over  a 
huge  territory. 

Although  the  Spanish  and  the  Portuguese  of  colonial 
times  were  very  widely  scattered  throughout  the  south- 
ern continent  they  lived  in  large  numbers  only  in  the 
most  favored  localities.  Now  the  physical  geography  of 
South  America  is  such  that  these  favored  localities  are 
in  general  separated  by  stretches  of  territory  of  so  little 
value,  even  at  present,  as  in  general  to  make  good  natural 
boundaries.  The  Argentine  has  the  greatest  extent  of 
good  agricultural  land,  but  the  Argentine  people  are 
separated  from  the  Pacific  coast  by  a  barren  mountain 
range,  the  Andes.  The  valleys  of  coastal  Peru  are 
exceedingly  fertile,  but  they  are  separated  from  the 
equally  fertile  coast  valleys  of  central  Chile  by  one  of  the 
most  barren  deserts  in  the  world.  The  mines  of  Bolivia 
were  the  centers  round  which  the  white  settlements  of 

192 


URUGUAY:     THE  SMALLEST   COUNTRY          193 

that  country  first  formed,  but  the  mines  of  Bolivia  are 
reached  only  after  crossing  wide  expanses  of  upland  and 
mountain  country  of  little  value  to  man. 

Even  in  colonial  times  interests  came  to  differ  partly 
because  of  the  differences  of  climate,  soil,  and  natural 
resources,  and  partly  because  time  increased  rather  than 
diminished  the  original  differences  between  the  several 
groups  of  settlers,  if  such  we  may  call  the  adventurers, 
gold  seekers,  and  missionaries  that  first  came  to  South 
America.  When  the  wars  of  emancipation  began  each 
group  was  eager  to  break  away  from  Spain  and  to  form 
a  republic.  Had  the  different  groups  been  nearer  each 
other,  or  had  they  sprung  from  a  common  colonizing 
center,  they  would  in  all  probability  have  formed  a 
smaller  number  of  republics;  but  separated  and  different 
as  they  were  it  was  natural  that  each  should  want  to 
become  a  separate  nation,  not  daring  to  trust  its  destiny 
with  a  larger  group  that  might  neglect  it. 

Among  the  smaller  republics  is  Uruguay,  with  an  area 
less  than  twice  that  of  the  state  of  New  York.  All  the 
railway  lines  of  Uruguay,  if  put  end  to  end,  would  scarcely 
reach  from  St.  Louis  to  Boston.  The  country  has  no 
navy,  and  the  entire  army  numbers  but  five  thousand  men. 

A  Country  with  Little  Waste  Land.  But  if  Uruguay 
is  small  there  is  at  least  hardly  any  waste  land  in  it.  Not 
an  acre  is  sterile  on  account  of  climate,  for  the  summer 
heat  and  the  winter  cold,  in  even  the  lowest  and  the 
highest  places,  do  not  prevent  man  from  occupying  all 
these  regions  in  all  seasons.  To  be  sure  some  of  the  land 
is  marshy  and  some  of  it  is  rocky,  but  most  of  it  is  good 
land  that  may  be  cultivated  almost  the  whole  year 
through;  and,  finally,  there  is  no  mountain  barrier  that 
stands  between  the  interior  and  the  coast,  as  in  Brazil; 
hence  all  the  land  is  easily  reached  by  the  settler. 

13    • 


IQ4     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

A  large  river,  partly  navigable,  flows  along  the  entire 
western  boundary  of  Uruguay,  drains  the  land,  and  is  a 
highway  to  good  markets.  It  also  prevents  that  quar- 
reling with  neighbors  about  boundary  lines  which  might 
lead  to  war.  Coal,  iron,  and  gold  are  found  in  small 
quantities,  but  they  will  never  become  the  basis  of  great 
industries.  The  lasting  resources  of  the  country  are  its 
grazing  and  agricultural  lands. 

The  Herds  and  Cowboys  of  the  Ranches.  While  a 
large  part  of  Uruguay  could  be  used  for  raising  grain 
only  about  one  sixtieth  is  actually  so  used  to-day.  Almost 
the  entire  energy  of  the  country  people  is  spent  in  the 
raising  of  cattle  and  sheep.  No  other  republic  in  South 
America  is  so  exclusively  devoted  to  the  grazing  industry 
as  Uruguay;  in  none  other  is  the  proportion  of  cow- 
boys, or  gauchos,  so  large.  The  land  is  all  near  the  sea. 
Markets  are  therefore  easy  to  reach  at  all  times,  and 
many  are  the  herds  that  these  favorable  conditions 
have  brought  into  existence.  Dried-meat  and  frozen- 
meat  plants  are  common;  at  Fray  Bentos,  Uruguay,  is 
one  of  the  largest  meat-extract  plants  in  the  world,  over 
four  thousand  beeves  being  killed  daily.  A  million  and 
three  quarters  of  oxhides  are  exported  every  year  and 
almost  a  hundred  thousand  bales  of  wool,  besides  horse- 
hides,  hair,  tallow,  and  other  animal  products  in  large 
quantities. 

It  is  one  of  the  peculiar  features  of  a  grazing  region 
that  the  towns  are  small  and  few  in  number.  The  people 
live  so  widely  scattered  that  a  large  number  of  very  small 
towns,  rather  than  a  small  number  of  large  towns,  best 
serve  the  needs  of  the  people.  Until  recently  Uruguay 
illustrated  this  principle  better  than  almost  any  other 
country.  Among  thirty-three  inhabited  places  marked 
on  the  maps  of  less  than  half  a  century  ago  when  grazing 


URUGUAY:     THE   SMALLEST   COUNTRY  195 

was  the  sole  important  industry  of  Uruguay,  only  six 
were  at  a  greater  distance  than  thirty  miles  from  the  coast 
or  from  the  Uruguay  River.  When  the  total  number 
had  increased  to  ninety-six  the  interior  towns  numbered 
thirty-seven,  but  of  these  by  far  the  greater  number  were 
places  of  little  importance  and  probably  not  more  than  a 
round  dozen  actually  deserved  the  name  of  town.  Hence 
on  leaving  the  capital  and  chief  city  of  the  country, 
Montevideo  (Fig.  100),  one  plunged  suddenly  from  the 
highest  civilization  to  the  semibarbarism  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  capital  with  its  handsome  plazas,  boulevards, 
and  theaters  was  suddenly  exchanged  fgr  a  grassy  wilder- 
ness of  rolling  hills,  without  bridges,  roads,  fields,  groves,  or 
gardens,  and  scarcely  even  a  town  worthy  of  the  name. 
And  instead  of  the  people  of  Montevideo,  with  their 
cultivated  manners  and  modern  dress,  one  found  the 
gauchos,  a  race  of  cowboys,  always  armed,  dressed  in  the 
rudest  manner,  and  while  on  the  whole  less  wild  than 
their  Argentine  cousins  they  were  not  always  as  careful 
of  the  law  or  even  of  human  life  as  the  more  law- 
abiding  citizens  wished  them  to  be. 

But  with  the  rapid  growth  of  the  grazing  industry  the 
land  has  become  increasingly  valuable  and  the  ranges  are 
not  so  large  as  they  once  were.  Furthermore,  numbers 
of  Italian  farmers  have  come  into  Uruguay  recently; 
and  farmers  live  in  denser  groups  than  ranchmen  and 
cowboys*  for  they  require  less  land  for  a  living.  Hence 
the  number  of  towns  (and  especially  of  interior  towns)  has 
increased.  Scattered  all  over  the  country,  two,  three, 
or  more  in  each  "departamento,"  are  little  towns  con- 
taining from  four  ( to  twenty  thousand  people.  Some 
of  the  towns  have  modern  improvements  such  as  electric 
lights,  running  water,  good  parks,  clean  streets,  and  at- 
tractive clubs,  and  life  in  many  of  them  is  truly  pleasant. 


1 96     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

The  advantages  of  Uruguay  as  a  home  for  the  farmer, 
no  less  than  for  the  ranchman,  are  great  indeed.  In 
many  new  lands  the  settler  must  first  cut  down  a  forest 
and  hew  his  home  out  of  the  wilderness  before  he  can  let- 
in  the  sunlight,  raise  crops,  and  make  a  living.  But  in 
Uruguay  there  are  no  dense  forests,  only  scattered  clumps 
of  trees  which  may  be  used  for  timber.  Man  need  do 
nothing  in  the  way  of  clearing  the  land,  since  cleared  land 
is  already  provided  for  him  by  nature.  On  the  grassy 
downs  of  this  country  he  may  pasture  his  flocks  and  herds 
without  thought  of  shelter  from  the  weather,  and  raise 
almost  any  kind  of  grain  that  grows. 

The  Port  of  Montevideo.  Three  hundred  thousand 
people,  or  about  one  third  of  the  population  of  Uruguay, 
live  on  a  little  point  of  land  between  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
and  a  small  bay  which  has  become  the  harbor  of  Monte- 
video (Fig.  100).  While  there  are  several  small  ports  at 
other  places  on  the  coast  of  the  country  none  has  attained 
much  importance  as  compared  with  the  capital  city. 


FIG.  100. 


Courtesy  of  W.  D,  Boyce 

Along  the  docks,  Montevideo 


URUGUAY:     THE   SMALLEST   COUNTRY  197 

Here  are  gathered  most  of  the  people  of  means  and  leisure 
and  one  third  of  the  whole  population  of  Uruguay,  all  the 
large  buildings,  and  the  shipping,  and  to  this  point  the 
principal  railways  converge  from  the  Uruguayan  plains. 

Montevideo  would  be  far  more  famous  if  it  were  not  so 
near  Buenos  Aires  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  La  Plata 
estuary.  Most  of  the  general  business  for  the  interior 
goes  to  the  Argentine  capital.  Montevideo  was  at  first 
claimed  by  the  Portuguese  and  later  by  Brazil,  and  has 
witnessed  many  campaigns;  in  fact,  it  has  been  called 
"New  Troy"  on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  was  once 
besieged  for  nearly  ten  years  (1842-1851).  While  the 
harbor  of  Montevideo  has  been  deepened  to  accommo- 
date large  ships  it  is  so  exposed  to  the  strong  southwest 
winds  of  winter  that  expensive  works  have  been  necessary 
to  provide  adequate  shelter. 

The  Effect  of  the  Wars.  However  favored  a  land  may 
be  by  nature  it  cannot  become  an  ideal  place  in  which 
to  live  unless  the  people  who  settle  in  it  are  peaceful  and 
law-abiding  and  put  the  good  of  the  country  before  preju- 
dice and  quarreling.  Unfortunately,  the  history  of  Uru- 
guay is  made  up  largely  of  a  long  record  of  political  troubles 
that  have  stirred  the  country  almost  from  the  time  that 
independence  was  gained.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  rule  of 
old  Spain  would  have  done  the  country  more  harm  than 
that  independence  which  to  so  many  has  meant  merely 
a  chance  to  gratify  personal  ambition  and  obtain  high- 
sounding  titles  or  government  offices  with  high  salaries. 

Several  causes  lie  back  of  the  political  unrest  of  Uruguay. 
The  early  fighting  against  the  Indians  had  made  the  settlers 
warlike,  frequent  changes  of  government  had  made  them 
accustomed  to  political  uncertainties,  and  the  presence 
of  an  army  tempted  every  ruler  to  stay  in  office  through 
the  unlawful  use  of  military  power.  Political  trouble 


ip8     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A,  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

has  been  endless.  "It  began  before  the  ink  on  the 
constitution  was  dry."  The  history  of  Uruguay  since 
1828  has  been  a  history  of  repeated  revolutions,  factional 
quarrels,  and  a  spirit  of  nameless  unrest;  it  is  full 
of  disgusting  details  of  coarse  politicians  trying  to  get 
control  of  the  public  purse  in  the  name  of  patriotism 
and  making  the  spoils  of  office  their  chief  object  in  life. 

Only  within  the  past  few  years  has  a  better  political 
spirit  been  growing  among  the  people.  In  1903  the  rival 
party  to  the  government  made  its  last  serious  effort  to  get 
control  of  national  affairs,  but  the  revolutionists  were 
driven  out,  their  leader,  Aparicio  Sara  via,  killed,  and  a 
degree  of  security  given  to  the  country  which  it  has  never 
before  enjoyed  in  its  long  history.  Respect  for  the  law 
and  the  constitution  is  growing,  the  people  are  acquiring 
a  broader  and  a  better  outlook  on  affairs,  and  with  political 
peace  the  country  will  not  be  long  in  attracting  industries 
which  up  to  this  time  have  been  shy  of  such  a  troubled 
home. 

To  all  the  internal  troubles  must  be  added  those  due 
to  the  position  of  Uruguay  between  Brazil  and  the  Argen- 
tine. Its  geographic  position  makes  it  another  Belgium. 
Located  between  two  powerful  and  over-shadowing 
neighbors,  each  greedy  for  its  rich  farming  and  grazing 
grounds,  Uruguay  was  claimed  and  indeed,  for  short 
periods,  governed  by  first  one  and  then  the  other  of  its 
neighbors.  But  the  very  presence  of  two  powerful 
neighbors  instead  of  one  has  preserved  the  integrity  of  the 
country.  Each  in  turn,  wishing  to  prevent  its  rival  from 
acquiring  this  land,  became  the  partisan  of  Uruguay  when 
the  other  became  its  enemy.  In  1859  a  treaty  was  signed 
between  the  Argentine  and  Brazil  that  prevented  both 
from  interfering  with  the  independence  of  Uruguay  when 
hostilities  between  the  big  rivals  were  in  progress. 


CHAPTER   XII 
BRAZIL:  THE  COUNTRY  OF  MANY  INTERESTS 

A  Big  Country  with  Varied  Interests.  Brazil  has  often 
been  called  the  land  of  coffee,  and  indeed  this  is  the  chief 
product  of  the  country  (Fig.  101);  but  also  within  the 
borders  of  Brazil  is  the  land  of  rubber — the  Amazon 
Basin.  Were  one  to  visit  the  interior  uplands  of  southern 
Brazil  one  would  find  there  neither  coffee  nor  rubber  but 
great  herds  of  cattle,  horses,  and  mules  grazing  upon  rich 
pastures.  This  section  one  would  have  to  call  the  land  of 
cattle.  In  a  few  districts  the  people  are  talking  and 
thinking  about  neither  coffee,  nor  rubber,  nor  even  cattle, 
but  minerals.  They  live  in  the  land  of  mines. 

So  great  are  all  these  industries  and  so  many  people  are 
interested  in  them  that  it  would  hardly  be  fair  to  call 
Brazil  by  any  one  of  these  names:  it  is  rather  the  land 
of  many  lands.  Other  countries  also  have  a  variety  of 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  101.     Picking  coffee,  Brazil.     Typical  plantation  scene 
199 


200     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

interests  and  industries,  but  in  no  other  country  of  South 
America  is  the  variety  so  large.  Bolivia  has  hundreds  of 
men  interested  in  rubber,  but  Brazil  has  thousands.  For 
every  herd  of  cattle  that  Colombia  supports,  Brazil  has 
scores;  for  every  cargo  of  coffee  produced  in  Venezuela, 
Brazil  produces  dozens.  Brazil  is  a  land  not  only  of 
many  interests  but  also  of  big  interests. 

One  reason  for  these  wide  differences  and  for  these 
great  interests  lies  in  the  size  of  the  country.  It  embraces 
half  a  continent,  just  as  the  United  States  occupies  nearly 
half  of  North  America.  That  is  one  reason  why  we  have 
orange  trees  in  Florida  and  spruce  trees  in  Maine,  glaciers 
in  the  mountains  of  Washington  and  deserts  in  Arizona, 
wheat  fields  in  Dakota  and  cotton  fields  in  Mississippi. 
We,  too,  live  in  a  land  of  many  interests,  where  people 
in  large  numbers  are  doing  widely  different  things.  We 
are  the  Brazil  of  North  America,  after  a  fashion,  as 
Brazil  may  roughly  be  said  to  be  the  United  States  of 
South  America. 

Including  Indians,  Brazil  has  more  than  twenty  million 
people,  or  about  as  many  as  Spain,  and  more  than  a 
third  as  many  as  live  in  the  United  Kingdom.  No 
state  in  the  United  States  is  so  large  as  the  territory  of 
Amazonas  at  the  western  end  of  the  Amazon  Basin,  which 
covers  seven  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  square 
miles,  or  almost  three  times  the  area  of  Texas.  Amazonas 
is  so  large  that  if  all  of  the  1,600,000,000  people  of  the 
world,  men,  women,  and  children,  were  gathered  within 
its  borders,  and  the  land  evenly  divided  among  them, 
each  one  would  have  a  square  plot  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  feet  on  a  side.  If  one  started  to  walk  about 
Brazil,  and  walked  twenty  miles  each  day,  it  would  take 
eight  hundred  days,  or  several  months  more  than  two 
years,  to  complete  the  trip,  for  it  is  sixteen  thousand  miles 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY  OF  MANY  INTERESTS      201 

along  its  borders,  or  more  than  halfway  around  the  world. 
A  country  as  large  as  Brazil  has  many  interests  because 
it  extends  into  many  climates,  and  each  kind  of  climate 
has  its  own  particular  kind  of  products.  From  north  to 
south  Brazil  is  more  than  two  thousand  miles  long; 
from  east  to  west  it  is  more  than  two  thousand  miles 
wide  in  its  widest  part.  These  figures  mean  that  while 
one  end  of  Brazil  lies  near  the  equator,  the  other  end  lies 
well  within  the  edge  of  the  temperate  zone;  that  though 
some  places  are  near  the  sea,  others  are  so  far  away  that 
to  reach  them  requires  weeks  of  travel  by  the  fastest 
means  in  the  country ;  that  there  is  room  for  great  moun- 
tain ranges  which  affect  the  temperature  and  rainfall; 
that  there  are  mighty  rivers,  many  Indian  tribes,  many 
kinds  of  animals,  trees,  shrubs,  and  insects. 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  1 02.    Railroad  bridge  near  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil.    This  railroad 
is  one  of  the  great  pieces  of  engineering  work  in  South  America 


202     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

The  Little-known  Xingu  Valley.  Far  in  the  interior  of 
South  America  and  almost  in  the  center  of  that  continent 
is  the  valley  of  the  Xingu,1  a  river  which  flows  northward 
from  the  central  region  of  Brazil.  It  is  located  in  the 
least  explored  part  of  the  country  and  has  been  visited 
by  only  a  few  explorers  at  long  intervals.  Here  we 
find  some  of  the  lowest  tribes  of  Brazil.  It  will  help  us 
understand  how  vast  is  the  great  interior  of  the  country 
to  look  at  the  life  of  these  remote  people,  still  unaffected 
by  the  civilized  whites  of  the  coastal  states.  In  1884  a 
party  of  Germans  made  a  somewhat  careful  study  of  the 
river  and  the  people  who  dwell  along  it.  This  expedition 
found  that  the  Xingu  and  its  branches  are  inhabited  by 
eighteen  different  Indian  tribes  which  number  in  all  about 
two  thousand  people.  The  so-called  "tame"  Bakairi, 
one  of  the  Xingu  tribes,  resemble  the  farming  population 
in  other  parts  of  Brazil  in  that  they  are  engaged  in 
agriculture  and  cattle  raising.  These  people  sell  their 
produce  to  the  traders  from  the  towns,  and  have  lost  all 
connection  with  their  savage  brothers  among  the  other 
Xingu  tribes. 

The  Yurunas  have  had  a  great  deal  of  intercourse 
with  the  people  of  Brazil  and  as  a  result  they  are  the 
most  civilized  of  the  Xingu  tribes.  Their  commerce 
with  the  whites  consists  chiefly  in  the  exchange  of  their 
strong  canoes — hollowed  from  the  single  trunks  of  great 
trees  —  for  tools  and  beads.  Their  small  huts  are  built 
on  little  rocky  islands  in  midstream,  generally  near  a 
fall  or  a  rapid.  In  this  location  they  have  a  natural 
defense  against  their  old  and  bitter  enemies,  the  maraud- 
ing Carajas,  who  roam  through  the  woods  and  along 
the  streams  of  all  the  country  between  the  two  princi- 
pal rivers,  the  Xingu  and  the  Tocantins.  They  are 

'Pronounced  sh^N  goo'.    . 


Less  than  i "  4"  to  8  " 

i "to  2" 
"to  4" 


I         °        1  TROPIC    OF    CANCE 


Gi,llANA/\  M^H*"*         * 

X    /    ^^"^T"  -**       ^*  1  «  0^        >• 

2^,,  Para         E       ATOR   ^p" 


^TROP^lCl  OK    CAPRJCORN    /  _  ^'_ 
' 


conc»gu 

JtA>  \  )    (    Vol.         0 

AMB^U.        S'ANT.AGO*.          ^    A/ 


FALKLAND  Is. 
ft 
rait  of  Magellan 

ERBA    DEL  FUEOO 

Horn  6b°L«ng.  W«t  from  GretBirich 


PLATE  VII.     Mean  January  rainfall 


jV      V       3       0        O 


§ 


14 


A 


C 


I 

,i 

I  i 

5  3 

5  s 


* 


o 


c 


CENTRAL 


_1  J,  _  JR£.PI£  £F_c^.N.£EjL  _ 
WEST 


T^~^SN!  NDIES 

^     ^=^T^   <=>•"': 

•!•"'"***•*  \ 


Less  than  i"  £•§  ^"to  8" 

i  "to  2"  8 '"to  12" 

2 "to  4"  ±^ia"toib{ 

-'-  ib"and  over 


<Cl 


PLATE  IX.     Mean   Jw/;y  rainfall 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      203 

accustomed  to  the  river  from  childhood,  because  of  the 
places  where  they  build  their  homes;  hence  they  make 
excellent  pilots.  In  their  stout  canoes  they  are  able  to 
navigate  even  dangerous  rivers  at  great  speed. 

In  the  region  of  dense  forests  and  barren  uplands  along 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Xingu  the  use  of  metal  is  entirely 
unknown;  the  tribes  still  live  in  the  stone  age  of  culture. 
The  forest  trees  are  felled  with  stone  axes  and  a  clearing 
is  made  for  their  small  plantations.  Stone  drills  are  used 
in  perforating  their  shell  ornaments,  and  for  knives  they 
use  the  sharp  teeth  of  the  piranha,  a  river  fish.  Domestic 
animals  are  entirely  unknown  except  pet  parrots  and  a 
few  other  birds.  They  are  ignorant  of  the  banana  in  all 
its  varieties,  also  of  sugar  cane  and  rice.  The  world  of 
their  religion  is  limited  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Xingu 
and  the  Tapajos.  They  have  no  idea  of  God,  but  believe 
in  a  soul  that  goes  wandering  about  during  sleep  and  after 
death.  At  least  one  tribe  has  been  living  so  much  apart 
from  all  the  rest  that  it  has  developed  a  language  quite 
unlike  that  of  any  other  in  South  America,  although  at 
one  time  it  must  have  had  a  speech  like  that  of  some 
parent  tribe  from  which  it  came. 

The  White  Population  in  Brazil.  Although  the  Portu- 
guese were  the  original  owners  of  the  country — a  prince 
of  Portugal  was  the  first  king  of  the  short-lived  Brazil- 
ian empire — and  although  descendants  of  Portuguese 
are  to-day  the  ruling  class,  it  is  surprising  to  learn 
that  there  are  only  a  few  million  of  them  in  all  Brazil. 
There  are  also  one  and  a  half  million  Italians  and  a 
quarter  of  a  million  Germans,  besides  considerable 
numbers  of  Spaniards,  Turks,  Russians,  French,  Austrians, 
and  others. 

To-day  one  finds  also  a  large  number  of  blacks  in 
Brazil;  there  are  towns  in  which  they  form  two  thirds  of 


204     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


the  whole  population.  Bahia  (Figs.  103  and  104)  has 
often  been  called  the  city  of  blacks.  There  is  no  color 
line  as  we  know  it  in  the  United  States  to-day.  Whites 
and  blacks  mingle  as  freely  as  the  whites.  Perhaps  one 
good  reason  for  this  is  the  fact  that  out  of  a  total  popula- 
tion of  more  than 
twenty  million 
people  there  are 
but  six  millions  of 
white  blood. 

The  Winds  and 
Mountains  of  Bra- 
zil. Since  climate 
— the  immediate 
cause  of  the  dif- 
ferent interests  of 
Brazil — depends 
so  much  upon  wind 
systems  and  relief 
it  will  be  well  to 
see  what  are  the 
climatic  effects 
produced  by  the 
mountains  and 
winds  of  the 
country.  We  already  know  that  the  Amazon  Basin  is 
exceedingly  flat.  We  need  also  to  know  that  the  Amazon 
Basin  includes  roughly  the  northern  half  of  the  country. 
The  southern  half  is  not  low  like  the  Amazon  valley  but 
stands  several  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  and  has  many 
small  and  some  large  irregularities;  it  is  a  great  plateau 
with  a  number  of  mountain  ranges  extending  across  it. 
The  mountains  are  highest  near  the  sea,  and  form  a  coastal 
fringe  that  walls  off  the  interior  from  the  strip  of  lowland 


FIG.  103. 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

Looking  across  the  bay  from  the 
port  o]  Bahia,  Brazil 


BRAZIL:    .COUNTRY  OF   MANY   INTERESTS      205 


on  the  coast  (Plate  VIII).  Their  different  portions  bear 
different  names  —  Serra  do  Mar,  Serra  da  Mantiqueira, 
and  others,  —  but  for  our  purpose  let  us  call  them  the  coast 
ranges.  All  the  way  from  Cape  Sao  Roque  at  the  east- 
ernmost point  of  Brazil  to  the  southern  end  of  the  country, 
these  mountains  furnish  a  picturesque  background  to  the 
coastal  lands  (Plate  II). 

The  winds  of  eastern  and  southeastern  Brazil  are  the 
so-called  southeast  trades  that  blow  the  year  round.  They 
strike  the  coast  of  Brazil  squarely  after  traversing  the 
ocean,  and  a  large  part  of  the  moisture  which  they  carry 
is  thus  deposited  on  the  seaward  slopes  of  the  coastal 
mountains,  where  it  falls  as  rain.  Since  the  trades  blow 
constantly  the  seaward  slopes  of  the  mountains  have 
almost  daily  rains;  but  since  the  winds  blow  with  greater 
velocity  and  constancy  at  some  seasons  than  at  others 
there  is  more  rain  at  6ne  time  than  at  another.  The 
rainy  season  lasts  through  the  southern  summer  (our 
winter);  during  the  rest  of  the  year  there  is  some  rain 
(Plates  I,  VII,  and  IX),  but  it  falls  in  moderate  amounts. 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 


FIG.  104.     Bahia,  one  of  the  coastal  cities  of  Brazil 


206     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 


The  Seasons  of  Rain.  Important  differences  in  the 
time  at  which  the  rainy  season  occurs  are  brought  about 
by  the  fact  that  the  trade-wind  belt  is  not  fixed  from 
one  year's  end  to  the  other.  It  migrates  north  and 
south  with  the  sun,  sometimes  by  great  and  again  by 

small  distances.  This 
change  in  the  position 
of  the  trade-wind  belt 
affects  the  force  of  the 
winds  and  the  amount 
of  the  rainfall  as  well 
as  the  time  during 
which  the  greatest 
amount  falls.  The 
rainy  season  does  not 
therefore  always  occur 
at  all  places  through- 
out Brazil  at  the  same 
time.  At  Rio  de  Janeiro  the  rains  fall  chiefly  from 
November  to  March;  at  Pernambuco  (Figs.  105,  106,  107) 
they  fall  from  April  to  June ;  and  on  the  Amazon  lands 
from  December  to  May  (Plates  VII  and  IX) .  It  is  interest- 
ing to  know  that  the  southeast  trades  serve  the  purpose  of 
man  not  only  through  the  rain  they  bring  to  the  useful 
plants  which  man  cultivates  but  also  by  the  aid  they  give 
to  navigation.  In  the  interior  they  enable  sailing  vessels 
and  canoes  on  the  Amazon  to  drive  before  the  wind  up  to 
the  head  of  navigation.  Since  the  trade  winds  blow  more 
strongly  by  day  than  by  night,  those  going  up  river  in 
canoes  or  sailboats  travel  chiefly  by  day,  when  the  wind 
helps  them  along;  those  going  downstream  often  travel 
by  night,  since  the  wind  does  not  then  offset  the  current. 
Though  there  are  well-marked  dry  and  wet  seasons  there 
are  also  sharp  differences  in  each  season  between  the 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Binghan 

FIG.  105.  Ox  cart  in  Pernambuco, 
Brazil 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY  INTERESTS      207 

rainfalls  of  successive  days.  A  moderate  rainfall  may 
change  to  a  violent  downpour  lasting  for  weeks  at  a  time.. 
At  long  intervals  tropical  hurricanes  may  strike  the  coast, 
as  at  Rio  in  1817,  when  ships  were  torn  from  their 
anchors  and  hundreds  of  lives  were  lost. 

The  Droughts  of  Ceara.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
facts  about  the  rainfall  of  Brazil  is  the  way  in  which  the 
mountains  shield  certain  places  from  rain.  One  such 
region  in  the  rain  shadow  of  the  mountains  is  the  deep 
valley  of  the  Sao  Francisco,  where  the  dry  ness  is  extreme. 
The  plants  look  much  like  those  of  the  Sahara,  with  thick 
leathery  leaves  capable  of  withstanding  long  droughts. 
Another  belt  of  light  rainfall  occurs  northwest  of  Cape 
Sao  Roque,  where  the  general  northwest  direction  of  the 
coast  happens  to  correspond  with  the  course  of  the 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Blngham 

FIG.  106.     Shipping  at  the  port  of  Pernambuco,  Brazil 


208     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


southeast  trades.  The  winds  therefore  do  not  blow  across 
the  mountains,  as  they  do  farther  south,  but  in  the  same 
direction.  Thus  they  give  up  but  little  of  their  moisture 
and  the  country  is,  on  the  whole,  very  dry. 

At  times  the  dryness  of  the  region  northwest  of  Cape 
Sao  Roque  is  extreme  and  the  people  actually  suffer. 
Such  was  the  case  in  the  state  of  Ceara  at  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  for  four  years  there  was 
very  little  rain.  The  vegetation  dried  up,  springs  and 
streams  ceased  to  flow,  the  dry  ground  cracked  open, 
and  the  live  stock  died,  for  there  were  then  no  plants  to 
eat  and  no  water  to  drink.  Many  people  left  the  region 
and  went  to  more  favored  places;  those  who  stayed  were 
brought  to  the  verge  of  starvation.  Such  periods  of 
extreme  dryness  are  bound  to  return — indeed,  less  extreme 
droughts  occur  every  few  years — and  make  the  land  far 
less  safe  than  that  south  of  the  cape.  The  government  is 
therefore  building  dams  and  canals  for  water  storage  and 
irrigation.  When  completed  its  projects  will  enable  the  peo- 
ple to  avoid  the  extreme  effects  of  the  recurrent  droughts. 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 


FIG.  107.     Inner  harbor  at  Pernambuco,  Brazil 


BRAZIL:    COUNTRY  OF   MANY  INTERESTS      209 

The  Dry  Grasslands  of  the  Plateau.  Much  more 
important  than  the  dry  coast  north  of  Cape  Sao  Roque 
are  the  semi-dry  tracts  of  the  great  interior  plateau  that 
constitutes  almost  a  quarter  of  Brazil.  The  highest 
mountains  and  the  greatest  rainfall  are  on  the  coast  near 
Rio  de  Janeiro.  It  is  therefore  easy  to  understand  that 
there  cannot  be  very  much  left  for  the  interior.  The 
moderate  rains  that  fall  upon  the  interior  plateau  support 
a  growth  of  vegetation  different  from  that  of  any  other 
part  of  Brazil.  It  is  a  mixture  of  grass  and  shrubbery; 
one  traveler  says  that  it  looks  like  an  old  English  orchard. 
This  is  the  grassland  of  southern  Brazil,  the  land  of 
cattle  (Plates  I  and  XI). 

The  Hot  and  the  Cool  Places.  The  southeastern  shore 
of  Brazil  is  constantly  fanned  by  the  southeast  trades  and 
here,  therefore,  we  find  the  coolest  places  and  most  of  the 
people.  Down  near  the  shore  at  the  foot  of  the  coast 
ranges,  where  are  most  of  the  ports  and  large  cities,  it 
is  very  hot  in  spite  of  the  trade  winds.  It  is  the  great 
heat  and  moisture  of  the  low  country  along  the  shore  that 
cause  unhealthful  conditions  and  the  numerous  diseases 
—  malaria,  yellow  fever,  rheumatism,  and  scrofula  — 
which  have  given  Brazil  such  a  bad  reputation  among  the 
people  of  northern  lands.  In  spite  of  its  nearness  to 
the  equator  the  interior  plateau  is  only  moderately  hot 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  summer  season,  for! 
its  altitude  is  great  enough  to  save  it  from  the  intense 
heat  of  either  the  Amazon  lowlands  on  the  north  or  the 
coastal  lowlands  on  the  south. 

The  Cool  Region  in  Southern  Brazil.  In  the  same 
country  in  which  great  heat  and  luxuriant  tropical  vege- 
tation are  common,  one  would  hardly  expect  to  find 
a  cool  region  down  near  the  level  of  the  sea.  Ecuador, 
Peru,  and  Colombia  all  have  extremes  of  heat  and  cold, 
14 


210     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

but  for  the  heat  it  is  necessary  to  go  to  the  lands  near  the 
level  of  the  sea,  and  for  the  cold  to  the  upper  slopes  of 
the  lofty  volcanoes.  In  Brazil,  on  the  other  hand,  one 
finds  these  contrasts  in  going,  not  uphill,  but  in  sailing 
southward  along  the  coast.  To  be  sure,  southern  Brazil 
is  not  a  land  of  bitter  cold,  but  it  is  so  cold  that  water 
freezes  on  the  higher  campos  or  plains  on  clear  winter 
nights,  and  in  the  states  of  Santa  Catharina  and  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul  cattle  have  been  lost  in  snowstorms.  It 
is  here  that  one  finds  the  greatest  contrasts  between 
summer  and  winter  temperatures  and  something  like  our 
succession  of  seasons  (Plates  V  and  VI) . 

In  this  respect  the  climate  of  southern  Brazil  is  far 
different  from  that  of  the  Amazon  valley,  where  the  rains 
are  almost  constant  and  where  the  heat  is  almost  always 
oppressive.  Even  Rio  de  Janeiro  has  relatively  little 
change  of  temperature  from  summer  to  winter,  the  dif- 
ference between  these  two  seasons  being  less  a  difference 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-Amorican  Union 

FIG.  108.     Coffee  plantation,  Brazil 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY  INTERESTS      211 

of  temperature  than  one  of  rainfall.  But  in  the  south 
there  are  well-marked  seasons  differing  from  each  other  in 
respect  to  cloudiness  and  temperature  though  less  as  to 
rainfall;  it  is  a  land  where  winter  means  not  only  greater 
rainfall  but  also  greater  cold. 

A  New  Germany  in  Brazil.  Southern  Brazil  is  unlike 
the  rest  of  the  country  in  many  other  respects.  We  find 
here  not  only  a  climate  but  also  a  people  different  from 
those  in  the  Amazon  valley  and  in  the  region  about  Rio. 
The  national  language  of  Brazil  is  not  more  frequently 
heard  in  southern  Brazil  than  is  Italian  or  German.  Brazil 
was  first  owned  and  settled  by  the  Portuguese,  and  it 
is  Portuguese  that  one  hears  in  the  cities  along  the  coast 
and  in  the  capital  of  the  country.  But  in  the  south  one 
hears  most  of  the  people  speaking  German  or  Italian. 
Neudorf  and  Blumenau  are  names  of  farming  settlements 
which  suggest  not  Brazil  but  Germany.  In  fact,  there  are 
so  many  Germans  living  in  southern  Brazil  that  some 
people  hastily  conclude  that  Germany  will  some  time  own 
or  claim  this  part  of  the  country,  or  that  the  Germans 
will  form  a  republic  here,  a  sort  of  new  Fatherland  in 
South  America.  But  the  government  of  Brazil  is  on  the 
whole  good,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  Germans  should 
ever  form  a  separate  state.  Where  the  people  have  no 
real  grievance  a  revolution  cannot  be  supported.  The 
Germans  of  Brazil,  like  the  Germans  of  the  United  States, 
will  probably  always  be  citizens  of  the  republic  in  which 
they  have  reared  their  new  homes,  however  much  their 
thoughts  may  turn  to  the  Fatherland. 

The  Campos.  We  shall  now  turn  to  the  interior 
grasslands  or  campos  of  Brazil  in  the  states  of  Matto 
Grosso  and  Goyaz,  where  both  climate  and  industries 
are  quite  unlike  those  of  the  low  coastal  region  near  Rio, 
or  the  coffee  region  of  Sao  Paulo  (Fig.  109)  or  temperate 


212     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

southern  Brazil  in  the  states  of  Parana,  Santa  Catharina, 
and  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  Wherever  we  find  civilized 
man  we  are  sure  to  find  his  habits  and  customs,  the  way 
in  which  he  wins  his  daily  bread,  and  the  nature  of  his 
commerce  influenced  largely  by  the  kinds  of  plants  that 
grow  about  him.  Man  depends  upon  plants  for  a  large 
share  of  his  food,  and  since  the  useful  plants  are  of  many 
varieties  they  require  many  different  kinds  of  labor. 
Man  may  desire  the  materials  that  plants  produce,  as 
the  latex  of  the  rubber  tree  for  rubber,  or  the  fiber  of 
the  henequen  for  sisal  hemp,  or  the  nut  of  the  coconut 
palm  for  food.  We  shall  therefore  wish  to  know  first 
of  all  what  kinds  of  plants  grow  in  southern  Brazil  and 
then  we  shall  be  able  the  better  to  understand  the  life 
of  the  people  who  dwell  there. 

The  rains  of  much  of  the  interior  plateau  are  light 
and  the  larger  plants  form  open  woods  or  shrubbery. 
The  country  is  chiefly  grown  up  to  grass,  and  here  we 
find  the  great  pastures  and  herds  of  Brazil  (Plate  XI). 
The  people  of  the  far  interior  are  therefore  ranchmen  and 
cattle  owners  chiefly,  while  those  nearer  the  seacoast  are 
engaged  principally  in  the  growth  of  coffee  (Fig.  108), 
rice,  and  sugar  cane. 

The  Grasses  of  the  Campos.  The  grass  of  the  campos 
is  of  many  varieties,  but  perhaps  the  two  most  important 
kinds  are  the  "goafs-beard"  tufted  grass  and  the  catin- 
gueiro\  the  former  is  of  poor  quality,  but  the  latter  makes 
excellent  pasturage  for  cattle  and  horses.  Where  the 
goat's-beard  grass  is  burnt  off  and  the  catingueiro  planted 
the  latter  is  able  to  grow  in  place  of  the  former.  In 
some  places  European  grasses  are  successfully  [raised, 
and  it  is  almost  certain  that  with  proper  care  alfalfa  and 
other  forage  crops  could  be  grown  to  provide  fodder 
during  the  dry  season.  In  the  main,  the^  soil  is  good 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY  OF   MANY  INTERESTS      213 

throughout  this  immense  area,  and  although  in  some 
places  the  rainfall  is  too  light  for  agriculture  without 
irrigation,  grasses  may  everywhere  be  grown  in  quantities 
large  enough  to  support  far  greater  herds  of  cattle  than 
one  finds  there  to-day.  The  region  is  much  better  off 
than  a  great  deal  of  the  range  or  cattle  country  of  our 
western  states,  where  good  crops  and  many  cattle  are 
produced  by  the  wise  use  of  water  and  by  proper  atten- 
tion to  grasses  with  long  roots  that  go  in  search  of  under- 
ground water. 

The  government  of  Brazil  is  helping  the  people  by  ex- 
perimenting with  grains,  grasses,  and  vegetables  of  all 
sorts  and  in  this  way  is  trying  to  find  out  just  what  kind 
of  plants  will  do  well  in  a  particular  kind  of  soil  with  a 
given  amount  of  rainfall.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
seeds  of  wheat  and  corn  are  brought  from  the  western 
part  of  the  United  States,  where  plants  have  become  ac- 
customed to  dryness,  just  as  we  bring  to  the  United 
States  many  kinds  of  grain  from  Asia,  where  plants  have 
lived  thousands  of  years  in  dry  places  and  have  learned 
to  get  along  with  far  smaller  amounts  of  water  than  those 
in  the  wet  regions  of  Europe  and  the  eastern  part  of 
the  United  States. 

"The  contrast  between  the  campos  (the  grasslands  of 
the  interior)  and  the  sea  level  conditions  is  remarkable. 
The  seaward  slopes  of  the  mountains  are  covered  with  the 
most  luxuriant  vegetation.  The  trees  are  overhung  with 
moss,  creepers,  and  parasitic  plants  of  all  kinds.  The 
undergrowth  is  a  tangled  mass  of  low  shrubs,  bamboos, 
and  brakes.  Palms,  which  are  absent  on  the  campos, 
are  seen  soon  after  commencing  the  descent.  Then 
come  banana  trees,  at  first  singly  and  scattering;  then 
more  and  more  thickly.  On  the  lower  slopes,  and  espe- 
cially on  the  lowlands  near  sea  level,  sugar  cane,  banana 


214     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

groves,  guavas,  and  paw-paws  furnish  striking  evidence 
of  the  change  from  the  cooler  and  drier  interior  upland 
campos  to  the  warmer  and  rainier  seaward  slopes  where 
frost  is  unknown.  The  change  in  temperature  and  in 
humidity  during  the  descent  is  very  striking.  It  was 
significant  that  the  freight  on  the  campos  consisted  of 
cattle,  while  on  the  seacoast  lowlands  cars  full  of  bananas 
were  attached  to  the  train."  (Ward.) 

The  Rice  Farms  of  the  Coast.  One  of  the  great  sources 
of  food  in  Brazil  that  has  been  overlooked  for  many  years 
is  the  rice  plant.  The  climate  and  soil  of  Brazil  are  excel- 
lent for  the  growing  of  abundant  crops  of  rice;  yet  until 
a  few  years  ago  almost  all  the  rice  used  by  the  people  was 
brought  in  from  other  countries,  chiefly  from  the  Cape 
Verde  Islands,  the  United  States,  and  India.  It  is  as 
if  we  brought  our  wheat  from  Egypt  instead  of  growing 
it  ourselves  on  the  prairies  of  Dakota,  Minnesota,  and 
other  central-western  states.  Rice  was  so  generally  used 
by  the  people  of  Brazil  as  a  cheap  food  that  the  trade  in 
it  amounted  to  many  thousands  of  tons  in  the  city  of  Rio 
alone,  and  about  a  hundred  thousand  tons  in  all  Brazil. 
The  higher  government  tax  of  later  years  has  made  the 
rice  dearer,  and  the  people  are  now  eating  less,  and 
instead  of  importing  it  they  are  learning  to  grow  it  them- 
selves though  still  at  great  expense. 

At  Moreira  Cesar  in  the  state  of  Sao  Paulo  a  man  from 
Louisiana  is  running  an  experimental  rice  farm  where 
students  are  learning  to  grow  Japanese  rice  with  very  good 
results.  It  shows  how  near  we  are  to  other  peoples  of 
the  world  to-day  to  learn  that  a  man  from  Louisiana  is 
showing  some  of  the  farmers  of  Brazil  how  to  grow 
Japanese  rice  instead  of  importing  rice  grown  in  India, 
and  brought  to  Brazil  in  German  and  British  steamers. 

Two  kinds  of  rice  are  grown,  an  upland  and  a  lowland 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      215 

variety.  The  lowland  rice  must  be  irrigated  as  in  Loui- 
siana and  is  most  conveniently  grown  in  low  places;  the 
upland  rice  may  be  sown  like  any  grain,  and  in  the  state 
of  Sao  Paulo  large  quantities  of  it  are  produced  on  strips 
of  land  between  the  coffee  trees. 

The  Araucaria  and  Paraguay  Tea.  Many  millions  of 
years  ago  there  grew  on  the  earth  strange  trees  for  the 
most  part  quite  unlike  those  now  living.  They  were 
the  ancestors  of  our  modern  trees  and  very  few  of  them 
can  now  be  found.  One  of  those  still  living  is  the 
araucaria,  or  monkey-puzzle  tree,  found  in  southwestern 
Brazil  and  on  both  the  eastern  and  western  sides  of 
the  Andes  Mountains  of  Chile  and  the  Argentine  in  lati- 
tude thirty-five  to  forty  degrees  south.  A  relative  of  this 
tree  is  the  araucaria,  or  monkey-puzzle  plant,  grown  in 
pots  indoors  in  northern  climates.  The  araucaria  forests 
have  little  undergrowth.  The  trees  have  umbrella-shaped 
crowns  and  straight  trunks,  valuable  for  lumber;  and  the 
nuts  form  an  important  article  of  food  (Plate  XI). 

Another  plant  useful  to  the  people  of  southwestern 
Brazil  and  neighboring  parts  of  the  Argentine,  Uruguay, 
and  Paraguay  is  the  yerba  mate  or  Paraguay  tea,  which 
is  not  at  all  a  real  tea  but  a  kind  of  holly.  The  Indians 
of  the  region,  at  the  time  the  whites  first  came,  crushed 
its  small  dried  stems  and  leaves,  added  hot  water,  and 
thus  obtained  a  useful  drink.  The  Jesuit  missionaries 
liked  Paraguay  tea  so  much  that  they  adopted  the  Indian 
custom  of  drinking  it. 

So  important  is  the  growing  of  mate  as  a  means  of 
livelihood  for  many  people,  and  so  generally  is  mate 
used  by  many  people  of  South  America,  that  we  shall 
wish  to  know  how  the  plant  grows  and  how  the  leaves  are 
cured.  The  mate  shrub  is  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  high. 
It  grows  naturally  at  an  elevation  about  fifteen  hundred 


216    SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

feet  above  the  sea  on  the  interior  plateaus  of  the  states 
of  Parana  and  Mat  to  Grosso,  and  while  most  of  it  is 
gathered  from  wild  shrubs  it  is  in  some  places  cultivated 
on  plantations  like  other  useful  plants  of  the  region. 
It  is  brought  to  the  preparing  factories  in  burlap  or 
rawhide  bags.  After  being  thoroughly  dried  in  ovens, 
it  is  passed  through  a  number  of  screens,  which  separate 
the  leaves  and  the  stems  according  to  sizes.  The  coarsest 
stems  are  used  as  fuel ;  the  less  coarse  are  sold  as  cheaper 
kinds  of  mate.  The  leaves  are  then  sorted  according  to 
quality  and  crushed  in  machines  from  which  the  mate 
comes  as  a  fine  olive-green  powder. 

The  people  who  drink  mate  are  very  enthusiastic  about 
it  and  claim  for  it  far  more  excellent  qualities  than  tea 
and  coffee  possess.  It  does  not  make  its  users  sleepless 
and  nervous,  as  tea  and  coffee  do  when  used  to  excess,  and 
it  is  said  to  have  certain  important  medicinal  qualities. 
It  is  prepared  for  drinking  much  like  ordinary  tea  and 
may  be  drunk  in  a  cup  if  it  is  carefully  strained.  The 
commoner  way,  however,  is  to  leave  the  half -crushed  tea 
in  the  cup,  and  suck  up  the  fluid  through  a  tube  called 
a  bombilla.  At  the  lower  end  of  the  tube  is  a  strainer 
which  keeps  out  the  powder.  A  bombilla  set  is  prized 
somewhat  as  the  American  lady  prizes  her  tea  set,  and 
many  people  otherwise  quite  poor  have  beautifully  made 
sets,  the  tube  in  some  cases  consisting  of  pure  silver  and 
the  cup  of  carved  wood  adorned  with  silver. 

Most  of  the  mate  produced  in  Brazil  is  shipped  to  the 
Argentine,  but  some  is  now  also  shipped  to  France,  where 
the  people  are  learning  to  use  it.  The  Argentine  uses 
seven  times  as  much  mate  as  coffee,  and  twenty-six  times 
as  much  mate  as  tea;  and  the  people  of  Chile,  Uruguay, 
and  Paraguay  prefer  it  to  ordinary  tea  and  coffee. 

The  Soil  of  Brazil.     Some  peculiar  features  of  Brazil 


BRAZIL:    COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      217 

must  be  mentioned  here  to  explain  the  limited  fertility 
of  part  of  its  land.  Among  them  is  the  absence  of  the 
earthworm.  This  worm  helps  to  maintain  the  fertility 
of  the  ground  in  which  it  lives  by  constantly  grinding  it 
up  and  stirring  the  soil  as  well  as  by  carrying  down  into 
the  ground  small  leaves  and  the  narrow  blades  of  grass 
which,  upon  decay,  enrich  the  soil.  To  some  extent 
the  lack  of  earthworms  in  the  soil  of  Brazil  is  made  up 
by  the  great  numbers  of  ants  that  burrow  deep  into  the 
ground  and  cover  the  surface  with  their  huge  homes. 
A  further  disadvantage  under  which  the  land  produces 
plants  lies  in  the  fact  that  most  of  the  cultivated  soil  of 
Brazil  has  no  true  winter  season  in  which  the  land  "  sleeps," 
that  is,  does  not  produce  crops.  In  our  country  the 
winter  season  is  the  one  in  which  plant  food,  the  product 
of  chemical  changes  in  the  soil,  keeps  on  gathering  for  the 
next  season's  growth;  in  Brazil  plants  are  growing  most 
or  all  of  the  year,  and  the  soil  is  kept  drained  of  its  supply 
of  plant  food. 

The  Coffee  Region  of  Brazil.  Even  if  Brazil  has  forested 
tracts  too  dense  for  man's  conquest,  campos  too  dry  for 
agriculture,  and  coastal  lowlands  too  hot  and  unhealthful 
for  man's  comfort  and  safety,  the  country  possesses  at^ 
least  one  unrivaled  resource:  climate  and  soil  along  the 
border  of  the  country  where  the  coast  is  backed  by 
mountains  are  among  the  finest  in  the  world  for  the 
growing  of  coffee  (Fig.  109).  To  this  advantage  we  must 
add  another — the  lands  that  produce  the  best  coffee  are 
located  near  the  sea  where  short  railways  connect  the 
plantations  with  the  sea.  This  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance in  a  tropical  country  like  Brazil,  for  it  may  happen 
in  such  hot  lands  that  the  forests  are  so  dense  and  the 
lands  so  remote  from  the  sea  that  railway  building  is 
almost  impossible,  and  though  the  land  would  produce 


218     SOUTH   AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

good  crops  man  is  unable  to  raise  them  because  he  cannot 
market  his  products.     There  is  not  a  single  railway  in  the 


Coffee  District 

Scale  100  miles  =  1  inch 
^•ttttS?  Coffee  area 
Railroads 


After  a  map  by  R.  De  C.  Ware 


FIG.  109.  Coffee  district 
whole  of  the  Amazon  Basin  except  the  short  one  recently 
built  about  the  rapids  of  the  Madeira  (Fig.  136);  in  the 
Mississippi  valley,  also  of  great  size,  there  are  thousands 
of  miles  of  railways.  The  mountain  streams  of  Brazil  are 
swift  and  unnavigable,  yet  it  is  on  the  slopes  of  the  tropi- 
cal mountains,  and  on  the  interior  plateaus,  that  the  best 
coffee  is  grown.  Railways  are  required,  but  railways 
are  expensive  anywhere,  and  exceedingly  expensive  in 
tropical  countries,  where  labor  is  scarce  and  operation 
costs  are  high  (Fig.  102). 

The  climate  and  soil  of  Brazil  are  well  adapted  to 
coffee,  insect  pests  are  scarce,  the  extent  of  land  capable 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS     219 

of  growing  coffee  is  very  great,  and  short  railways  descend 
steeply  to  sea  level.  For  these  reasons  Brazil  has  become 
the  greatest  coffee  country  in  the  world,  and  if  one  visit 
New  York  harbor  and  look  among  the  incoming  vessels 
for  a  coffee  steamer  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  that  it 
has  come  from  Brazil  and  that  the  name  of  a  Brazilian 
firm  will  be  stamped  upon  the  sacks  in  which  the  coffee 
is  shipped. 

The  Coffee  Ships  of  the  World  at  the  Gates  of  Brazil. 
Many  of  the  countries  of  the  world  send  vessels  to  the  gates 
of  Brazil,  the  harbors  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Santos  (Fig. 
170).  Brazil  may  be  said  to  levy  tribute  on  all  coffee- 
importing  peoples.  Since  a  large  part  of  the  coffee  is 
shipped  to  the  United  States,  we  are  naturally  much 
interested  in  the  country  of  its  origin.  The  best  coffee 
lands  of  Brazil  are  chiefly  in  the  state  of  Sao  Paulo. 
Almost  the  entire  energy  of  the  people  of  this  state  is 
absorbed  in  the  raising,  curing,  and  shipping  of  this 


FIG.  no.     The  central  market  of  Santos,  Brazil.     To  this  artificial 

basin  boats  come  with  vegetables  from  many  plantations 

for  the  people  of  the  city  of  Santos 


220     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

single  product.  It  makes  one  think  of  the  cotton  states 
of  our  South,  where  every  cotton  grower  talks  and  thinks 
chiefly  about  cotton. 

The  plantations  of  Sao  Paulo  are  laid  out  at  elevations 
from  one  thousand  to  three  thousand  feet  above  sea  level 
and  cover  thousands  of  square  miles.  No  other  state 
is  so  exclusively  devoted  to  the  production  of  the  coffee 
berry,  since  none  other  has  a  climate  and  soil  so  nearly 
ideal.  Row  upon  row  of  coffee  trees  stretch  out  in  every 
direction ;  in  places  they  seem  almost  like  a  forest.  Large 
plantations  are  the  rule;  some  are  so  large  that  they  have 
railroad  tracks  running  through  them  for  the  quicker 
delivery  of  the  coffee  crop  to  the  central  warehouses. 
The  best  berries  are  grown  in  the  famous  red  soils,  their 
color  being  due  to  the  presence  of  iron — thought  to  be 
beneficial  for  coffee. 

Coffee  Planting.  The  young  coffee  plant  requires 
tender  care  for  its  best  growth.  It  will  wither  and  die 
if  left  exposed  to  the  hot  sun,  so  the  coffee  plantations 
are  in  some  cases  planted  to  bananas,  which  grow  quickly 
and  shelter  the  coffee  plant  from  the  direct  rays  of  the 
tropical  sun.  When  the  coffee  bushes  are  large  enough 
to  take  care  of  themselves  the  bananas  are  removed.  In 
some  plantations  the  coffee  is  planted  among  the  original 
growth  of  trees  and  shrubs  and  when  large  enough  to 
take  care  of  itself  this  growth  is  cut  away.  Sometimes 
sticks  or  leaves  are  put  over  the  youngest  plants  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  sun,  or  they  are  covered  with  awnings 
of  cheap  cotton  cloth.  In  Sao  Paulo  less  care  need  be 
exercised  over  young  plants  than  elsewhere  since  the  sum- 
mer sun  is  less  powerful  here  than  in  the  warmer  states 
farther  north.  If  the  plantations  are  kept  carefully 
weeded,  each  tree  will  produce  three  or  four  pounds  of 
coffee  beans  every  year  (Fig.  108). 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      221 

Coffee  berries  in  their  natural  state  are  quite  unlike  the 
coffee  we  see  in  the  grocery  stores  of  this  country.  The 
coffee  beans  that  we  know  are  the  roasted  seeds  of  coffee 
berries  that  grow  in  large  clusters  close  to  the  limbs 
of  the  low  coffee  tree  or  bush  and  look  quite  like  dark 
red  cherries.  Each  berry  contains  two  seeds  whose  flat 
faces  are  pressed  close  together;  when  dried  and  roasted 
these  seeds  form  the  coffee  bean  of  commerce.  The 
trees  begin  to  blossom  in  December ;  the  berries  ripen  and 
the  picking  begins  in  April  or  May. 

Preparing  Coffee  for  Market.  When  the  coffee  pickers 
bring  berries  to  the  factories  they  are  doing  only  the  first 
of  a  long  series  of  tasks  necessary  to  prepare  the  product 
for  market.  The  soft  pulp  surrounding  the  berries  must 
be  removed  by  machines  which  crush  the  pulp  but  do  not 
harm  the  hard  berry  inside.  The  combined  mass  of  pulp 
and  seeds  is  then  passed  into  a  cylinder  with  holes  through 
which  only  the  coffee  beans  pass.  It  reminds  one  very 
much  of  the  screens  of  a  stone-crushing  machine,  where 
the  small  particles  of  stone  are  allowed  to  pass  through 
the  screen  but  the  large  pieces  are  passed  over  it  into  a 
separate  heap.  After  this  the  beans  are  washed  clean 
in  large  tanks  from  which  they  come  as  white  as  snow. 
They  must  then  be  thoroughly  dried  in  yards  called  ter- 
reiros,  almost  like  fields,  which  are  paved  with  cement 
that  becomes  very  hot  in  the  sun.  Thorough  drying 
takes  several  weeks,  for  if  the  berries  are  not  perfectly 
dry  they  spoil  on  the  long  ocean  voyages  between  Brazil 
and  the  ports  of  England,  Germany,  France,  and  the 
United  States. 

During  the  drying  process  the  berries  are  carefully 
watched,  stirred  with  wooden  rakes,  and  covered  at 
night  to  protect  them  from  the  dew  or  the  rain  (Fig.  1 1 1). 
In  place  of  the  drying  courts  a  new  system  of  steam 


222     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

drying  has  come  into  use  that  may  soon  very  largely  take 
the  place  of  the  old  method.     By  it  the  coffee  is  thoroughly 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  in.     Drying  coffee,  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil 

dried  in  a  few  hours  and  the  long  delay  and  uncertainty 
and  the  great  cost  of  the  old  system  are  done  away  with, 
though  the  coffee  is  not  always  improved  in  quality. 

When  perfectly  dry  the  beans  are  placed  in  machines 
that  remove  the  white  outer  skin  and  expose  the  olive- 
green  surface  of  the  berry  that  we  know  so  well.  Still 
another  treatment  must  be  undergone  before  the  beans 
are  ready  for  shipment.  They  are  of  different  sizes,  and 
must  be  sorted  and  graded  by  passing  through  sieves  of 
different  sizes,  from  which  the  coffee  runs  out  in  tubes 
and  finally  into  bags  containing  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  pounds  each.  In  this  form  it  is  ready  for  shipment 
(Figs.  112  and  113). 

The  Villages  of  the  Coffee  Plantations.  So  long  a 
series  of  treatments  and  such  large  estates  require  a  great 
many  men,  and  in  some  places  one  finds  the  laborers 
of  a  single  estate  numbering  thousands.  In  general, 


BRAZIL:  COUNTRY  OF  MANY  INTERESTS      223 

these  live  in  villages,  and  the  village  life  of  the  coffee 
estates  is  quite  distinct  from  the  life  of  the  great  cities  on 
the  coast.  There  are  large  stores  where  laborers  buy  food, 
a  bakery  where  they  may  purchase  bread,  a  foundry, 
and  often  a  sawmill  where  is  sawed  the  lumber  out  of 
which  their  little  one-story  houses  are  built.  Formerly 
the  coffee  plantations  were  worked  by  slaves,  negroes 
brought  from  Africa  as  once  they  were  brought  into 
our  country  for  the  cotton  and  sugar  plantations  of  the 
South.  But,  following  the  example  of  most  slave-holding 
countries,  the  Brazilians  in  the  year  1888  set  all  the 
blacks  free.  There  were  at  that  time  about  a  half  million 
slaves  in  Brazil,  and  the  sudden  freeing  of  all  these  people 
was  a  severe  blow  to  both  the  coffee  and  the  sugar 
industries. 

Many  of  the  negroes  thought  freedom  meant  that 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  TJnlon 

FIG.  112.     Coffee  warehouse,  Santos,  Brazil.     Weighing  and  storing 
coffee  in  preparation  for  shipment  abroad 


224     SOUTH   AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

they  would  not  have  to  work  at  all,  and  many  of  them 
became  loafers  and  criminals  in  the  large  towns  to  which 
they  drifted.  After  a  time  some  of  the  negroes  regarded 
their  freedom  more  sensibly  and  went  back  to  work  on 
the  plantations.  To  add  to  the  number  of  laborers  the 
government  made  it  easy  for  foreigners  to  enter  the  coun- 
try, and  to-day  one  finds  them  in  thousands  on  the  coffee 
estates,  where  the  Italians  especially  make  excellent  work- 
men. The  negroes  once  slaves,  or  the  descendants 
of  slaves,  are  still  too  largely  gathered  in  the  towns 
where,  as  in  Bahia  for  instance,  they  form  a  surprisingly 
large  part  of  the  total*  population.  Bahia  looks  indeed 
like  a  city  of  negroes,  more  African  than  Brazilian. 

The  Region  of  Mines.  North  of  %  Rio  de  Janeiro  is 
one  of  the  most  important  provinces  of  Brazil,  for  it  is 
the  center  of  the  mining  industry,  "the  region  of  mines." 
Its  name  is  easy  to  remember  for  it  is  Minas  Geraes, 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  113.     Loading  coffee  for  the  United  States  market,  Santos 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      225 

which  means  general  or  universal  mines.  Mines  of  gold, 
silver,  copper,  and  iron  are  found  in  it,  and  the  product 
of  only  that  part  of  it  nearest  the  seacoast  may  be  sent 
easily  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  a  rare  thing  in  South 
America.  There  are  a  few  railways  in  the  province,  but 
more  are  needed  to  complete  the  connection  with  the 
coast  and  enable  people  the  better  to  develop  the  interior. 
While  gold  is  now  the  chief  product  of  the  mines  the 
diamond  industry  is  quite  as  famous.  The  diamonds 
are,  however,  not  nearly  so  valuable  as  those  from  South 
Africa.  They  are  black  in  color  and  are  used  chiefly  in 
diamond  drills  for  rock  boring. 

The  city  of  Diamantina  is  the  center  of  the  diamond 
and  gold  mining  country  and  may  be  reached  in  two 
ways.  One  may  leave  the  railway  at  Curvello  and  take 
a  mule  train  for  the  three  or  four  days'  journey  that  sepa- 
rates the  city  from  the  end  of  the  railway,  or  one  may 
leave  the  railway  at  Curalinho  farther  north  and  go  by 
coach  and  wagon.  Either  way  is  exceedingly  difficult 
and  shows  not  only  how  hard  it  is  to  get  provisions  and 
machinery  to  the  city,  but  also  with  what  trouble  the 
exports  are  sent  away.  American  rough-road  wagons  are 
being  brought  in  gradually  and  have  helped  greatly  in  mak- 
ing the  movement  of  men  and  goods  cheaper  and  easier. 

It  is  rather  striking,  on  leaving  the  United  States  far 
behind,  to  go  to  the  end  of  the  railway  in  Minas  Geraes, 
take  a  mule  train  to  the  Jequitinhonha  River  country, 
and  find  there  American  wagons.  It  recalls  the  fact 
that  before  the  end  of  the  railway  in  southern  Peru  had 
reached  Cuzco,  the  old  capital  of  the  Inca  empire,  one 
could  ride  from  the  railway  to  Cuzco  in  a  Cincinnati 
surrey.  It  is  like  going  to  Egypt  to  ride  behind  a  Baldwin 
locomotive  made  in  Philadelphia,  or  to  Siberia  to  cross 
an  iron  or  steel  bridge  made  in  Connecticut. 

15 


226     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

Iron  Mines  and  their  Influence  on  Future  Develop- 
ment. Far  more  important  than  any  other  mineral 
resources  of  Brazil  are  the  iron  mines  of  Minas  Geraes, 
where  it  has  been  estimated  that  there  are  two  billion 
tons  of  iron  ore.  The  high-grade  massive  hematite  and 
the  thin-bedded  laminated  hematite,  or  jacutinga,  con- 
taining sixty-three  to  sixty-nine  per  cent  iron,  make  up 
a  tonnage  which  is  probably  nearly  as  great  as  the  reserve 
of  iron  ore  left  to-day  in  the  Lake  Superior  region  of  the 
United  States.  Some  individual  deposits  contain  several 
hundreds  of  millions  of  tons.  As  the  district  is  only  a 
little  over  three  hundred  miles  north  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and 
the  ore  may  be  hauled  down  hill  on  a  railway  already 
built  to  Rio  and  another  partly  completed  from  the  port 
of  Victoria  north  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  future  should  see 
large  shipments  of  iron  ore  to  the  United  States  and 
Europe.  If  large  quantities  of  coal  are  ever  found  in 
Brazil,  or  if  electric  smelting  becomes  effective,  there  is 
no  reason  why  Brazil  should  not  have  a  great  iron  and 
steel  manufacturing  industry  and  make  its  own  steel 
rails,  locomotives,  bridges,  steel  buildings,  sewing  ma- 
chines, and  ships  as  well  as  those  of  the  Argentine  and 
other  parts  of  South  America. 

How  the  Mines  have  Helped  the  Farms.  One  indus- 
try often  helps  another,  and  this  principle  is  well  shown 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  mines  of  Minas  Geraes  have 
helped  farming  and  grazing.  The  forage  for  mules  and 
the  provisions  for  men  that  work  in  the  mines  require 
considerable  work  on  the  part  of  people  who  do  not  mine 
but  who  depend  on  the  farm  and  the  ranch  for  a  living. 
Some  sections  of  Minas  Geraes  are  like  many  of  the 
settlements  in  Nevada  where  mining  is  an  important 
industry.  The  men  in  the  mines  require  food,  and  asso- 
ciated with  each  group  of  mines  are  people  who  are  not 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF    MANY   INTERESTS      227 

miners  but  who  depend  for  a  living  on  the  supplies  they 
sell  to  the  miners.  American  agricultural  machinery  is 
being  slowly  introduced  into  Minas  Geraes  to  better  the 
farming  conditions  and  supply  cheaper  food  to  the  mines. 
The  province  has  immense  herds  of  cattle  and  mules 
that  graze  on  the  campinas  or  upland  prairies,  besides 
many  flocks  of  sheep;  its  soil  is  fertile  and,  when  properly 
cultivated,  yields  valuable  crops,  and  it?  forests  contain 
choice  timber,  balsams,  drugs,  and  dyewoods. 

Although  Minas  Geraes  is  most  celebrated  for  its 
mines,  its  most  valuable  product  is  coffee;  it  also  pro- 
duces sugar,  tobacco,  and  cotton.  We  must  not  suppose 
that  because  gold  and  diamonds  in  even  large  quantities 
are  found  in  any  region  that  they  represent  the  most 
valuable  riches  of  the  country.  The  richest  diamond  or 
gold  region  in  the  world  does  not  produce  in  the  long  run 
anything  like  the  riches  that  are  to  be  found  in  the  soil. 

Vast  Forests  and  Little  Lumber.  One  of  the  greatest 
of  the  resources  of  Brazil  is  its  large  and  varied  supply 
of  useful  woods.  With  the  rapid  increase  in  the  past 
few  hundred  years  of  the  civilized  peoples  who  use  wood, 
the  forests  of  the  north  temperate  zone  are  gradually 
disappearing  and  the  supply  becoming  too  small  to 
satisfy  the  needs  of  the  people.  England  imports  most 
of  the  wood  used  in  that  country;  Germany  imports 
vast  amounts  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  her  forests  are  well 
cared  for;  and  even  with  our  great  forests  in  the  United 
States  care  must  be  taken  lest  in  a  few  years  we  have  not 
enough  wood  to  supply  our  rapidly  increasing  population. 

But  down  in  the  heart  of  Brazil  is  a  vast  forest  where 
man  will  never  extensively  clear  the  ground  for  agricul- 
ture, or  at  least  will  not  clear  it  for  centuries  to  come. 
Here  are  to  be  found  woods  of  many  kinds  for  many  uses 
and  to  an  increasing  extent  these  woods  are  being  shipped 


228     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

to  the  people  of  northern  countries.  Mahogany  is  used 
for  making  furniture,  for  trimmings  in  houses  and  boats, 
and  as  a  substitute  for  hard  woods  such  as  walnut,  maple, 
and  oak;  many  kinds  of  tropical  cedars  are  now  brought 
into  northern  countries  for  making  boxes,  and  to  some 
extent  also  in  making  furniture;  there  are  also  imported 
dyewoods  and  various  other  woods  from  which  drugs  are 
obtained  (Plate  XI). 

The  rich  vegetable  growth  of  tropical  lands,  with  their 
abundant  rains,  must  not  lead  us  to  suppose  that  lumber 
can  be  easily  obtained  in  the  Amazon  valley.  We  hear 
so  much  about  the  dense  tropical  forests  of  Brazil  that 
we  may  find  ourselves  having  wrong  notions  about  the 
timber  and  lumber  resources  of  the  region.  The  forests 
are  indeed  vast,  and  they  are  truly  dense,  but  if  one  looks 
through  them  for  a  particular  wood,  one  finds  that  trees 
of  a  kind  do  not  grow  in  groves  or  over  vast  areas  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  other  trees,  as  is  the  case  to  a  large  extent 
with  the  trees  and  forests  of  the  United  States.  One  will 
find  a  rubber  tree  here  and  a  cedar  there,  and  beyond 
the  cedar  a  tangle  of  vines ;  or  only  a  clump  of  mahogany 
trees  in  one  place  and  another  clump  a  long  way  off  and 
separated  from  the  first  clump  by  dense  thickets  of  vines 
and  bushes  or  by  useless  trees.  Lumbering  in  a  trop- 
ical forest  is  therefore  very  hard  work  and  very  expen- 
sive. 

The  difficulties  of  tropical  forestry  are  further  increased 
by  the  fact  that  the  streams  are  the  only  highways  on 
which  the  timber  can  be  transported,  and  therefore  lum- 
bering can  be  done  only  on  the  banks  of  the  streams  or 
very  close  to  them.  The  marshy  ground  does  not  make 
it  possible  to  put  the  timber  on  wagons  and  haul  it  out 
to  the  river  even  if  an  opening  be  cut  through  the  wall  of 
vegetation.  Further,  when  the  different  kinds  of  logs 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OP   MANY   INTERESTS      229 

are  brought  to  the  banks  of  the  streams,  many  are  so 
heavy  that  they  cannot  be  floated  to  the  mill  like  the 
timber  in  this  country. 

The  Name  "Brazil"  from  a  Kind  of  Wood.  It  is  a 
pleasing  thought  that  the  country  having  the  greatest 
single  expanse  of  tropical  forest  in  the  world  should  have 
derived  its  name  from  a  kind  of  wood.  When  the  news 
reached  Portugal  early  in  the  sixteenth  century  that 
there  was  a  great  land  mass  to  the  southeast,  Emanuel, 
the  king,  asked  Americus  Vespucius  to  explore  the  coun- 
try, and  gave  him  three  vessels  for  the  service.  In  the 
second  voyage  of  this  explorer  (after  whom  America  was 
named)  he  reached  the  coast  of  South  America,  anchored 
in  a  safe  harbor,  and  for  five  months  rested  and  kept  up 
a  trade  with  the  Indians.  On  his  return  he  brought  to 
Portugal  a  cargo  of  brazilwood.  This  had  been  used  as 
a  dyewood  for  three  hundred  years  before  the  discovery 
of  America  and  was  one  of  the  precious  substances  brought 
from  India  by  the  great  traders  of  Venice  and  Genoa. 
When  it  became  known  that  brazilwood  grew  abundantly 
in  the  tropical  forests  in  this  part  of  South  America,  the 
name  Brazil  came  gradually  into  use  as  the  name  of  the 
country  from  which  the  brazilwood  was  obtained,  and 
Brazil  it  has  been  ever  since. 

The  Wonderful  Carnauba  Tree.  Among  the  other 
valuable  woods  of  Brazil  perhaps  the  most  wonderful  in 
its  general  service  to  man  is  the  carnauba  tree,  which 
grows  naturally  in  a  large  territory  in  the  eastern  seacoast 
states.  It  is  always  green  and  vigorous  even  in  times  of 
long  and  severe  drought.  Its  roots  produce  a  medicine 
as  good  as  sarsaparilla,  its  stem  affords  strong,  light  fibers 
which  have  a  beautiful  luster,  and  it  serves  also  for  timbers 
and  rafters  for  houses  and  for  stakes  used  in  making  fences. 
Wine  and  vinegar  as  well  as  sugar  and  starch  are  made 


230     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

from  parts  of  the  tree.  In  those  places  that  have  periods 
of  drought,  as  Ceara  and  Parnahyba,  the  poorer  classes 
depend  upon  it  to  a  great  extent  for  food  when  their 
ordinary  supply  gives  out.  Its  fruit  is  also  used  for 
feeding  cattle.  The  pulp  of  the  wood  has  a  pleasant  taste, 
and  the  milky  nut  is  sometimes  used  in  place  of  coffee. 
Hats,  baskets,  brooms,  and  mats  are  made  from  the  straw 
obtained  from  its  leaves.  The  straw  is  also  used  for 
thatching  houses,  and  some  of  it  is  shipped  to  other  parts 
of  Brazil  and  even  to  Europe,  where  it  is  used  in  the 
manufacture  of  hats.  The  pith  of  the  tree  may  be  used 
as  a  substitute  for  cork;  salt  is  extracted  from  it,  and  also 
an  alkali  used  in  the  manufacture  of  common  soap. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  use  of  all  is  the  wax  derived 
from  the  leaves  and  made  into  candles  in  common  use 
throughout  Brazil. 

The  Most  Beautiful  City  in  South  America.  The 
natural  beauty  of  the  city  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  is  far  greater 
than  that  of  all  but  a  few  of  the  most  beautiful  cities  of  the 
world.  Viewed  from  the  sea  it  is  a  Naples  or  a  Constanti- 
nople; the  islands  in  the  harbor  of  Rio  are  like  the 
choicest  bits  of  the  ^Egean  islands  or  the  entrancing  islets 
of  the  Azores ;  while  the  steep  mountains  that  encircle  the 
bay  have  all  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  Norwegian 
fiords  combined  with  the  lavish  color  and  beauty  of  dense 
tropical  vegetation.  Nature  has  given  the  city  a  setting 
that  surpasses  the  imagination.  And  in  the  few  details 
in  which  nature  might  be  said  to  be  imperfect,  man 
has  changed  nature  and  so  completed  the  beauty  of 
the  picture  and  made  Rio  the  wonder  and  admiration 
of  all  travelers.  The  wonder  is  the  greater  because  we  of 
the  northern  half  of  the  earth  have  so  poor  a  notion  of 
the  great  cities  in  the  southern  hemisphere.  We  are 
told  that  more  than  ninety  per  cent  of  all  the  people  of 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      231 

the  world  live  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  and  from  this 
statement  we  get  the  wrong  idea  that  all  the  interesting 
cities  are  to  be  found  in  the  lands  north  of  the  equator. 

The  Old  and  the  New  Rio.  It  is  worth  while  to  know 
that  the  city  of  Rio  has  been  made  more  beautiful  since 
man  has  adapted  it  to  the  natural  beauty  of  the  islands, 
the  sea,  and  the  encircling  hills  (Fig.  114).  Twenty  years 
ago  it  consisted  of  a  more  or  less  disjointed  group  of  small 
villages  thrust  between  the  mountains  on  the  west  side  of 
a  great  bay.  Some  of  the  settlements  clung  to  the  edge 
of  the  land,  others  ran  far  up  along  the  small  valleys 
between  the  hills,  or  upon  their  lower  slopes.  There 
were  a  few  beautiful  parks  and  buildings,  and  while 
the  whole  effect  of  the  city  was  beautiful  it  lacked  unity 
as  well  as  adaptation  to  the  surrounding  landscape. 

It  was  no  child's  play  to  remodel  the  city.  Sixty 
million  dollars  had  to  be  raised.  No  such  change  was 
ever  made  in  any  other  city  of  the  world,  except  perhaps 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.  114.     Botafogo,  Avenida  Beiro  Mar,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil 


232     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

when  Peter  the  Great  built  Petrograd  up  on  the  frozen 
marshes  of  the  Neva  or  when  Paris  was  cut  through  and 


f  (ho  Pan-American  Union 


FIG.  115.    Avenida  Central,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  a  street  widened  at  great 
expense  and  in  harmony  with  the  surroundings 

through  by  a  half-dozen  great  avenues.  The  work  was 
begun  in  September,  1903.  First  there  was  constructed 
a  quay  more  than  two  miles  long,  following  the  general 
curve  of  part  of  the  shore.  Inside  the  quay  there  was 
built  a  broad  avenue  parallel  to  the  shore  and  more  than 
four  miles  long.  Both  quay  and  avenue  are  among 
the  most  prominent  features  in  a  general  view  of  the  city. 
A  canal  known  as  the  Mangue  was  straightened  and 
extended  toward  the  sea  and  flanked  by  an  electric-lighted 
avenue  nearly  two  miles  long  and  one  hundred  and 
thirty-one  feet  wide.  The  streets  were  paved  with 
asphalt,  the  sewer  and  water-supply  systems  were  enlarged 
and  perfected  to  do  away  with  the  scourge  of  fever, 
certain  hills  were  cut  down,  and  there  was  built  a  great 
central  avenue,  called  the  Avenida  Central,  or  Rio  Branco, 


BRAZIL:     COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS      233 

more  than  a  mile  long  and  one  hundred  and  eight  feet 
wide,  bordered  by  trees  and  beautiful  and  imposing 
buildings  (Figs.  1 1 5  and  117).  The  view  of  the  harbor  and 
city  that  one  may  obtain  from  the  top  of  the  Corcovado 
and  the  Pao  de  Assucar  (Sugar-loaf)  is  perhaps  the  most 
wonderful  of  all  the  celebrated  views  of  natural  wonders 
in  the  world.  The  tops  of  these  two  striking,  steep- 
walled  peaks  may  be  reached,  the  one  by  rail,  the  other 
by  an  aerial  tramway  which  carries  one  out  over  the 
forest  and  to  the  summit,  from  which  one  looks  down  upon 
the  city  and  its  beautiful  suburb,  Botafogo  —  almost  as 
from  an  aeroplane  or  an  airship  (Figs.  114  and  116). 

Why  Brazilians  are  so  fond  of  Rio.  One  can  under- 
stand the  pride  of  the  people  of  Rio  in  their  city  when  one 
remembers  that  it  is  by  far  the  largest  and  the  most 
beautiful  city  in  the  whole  country.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  Brazil  contains  more  than  twenty  million  people  it  has 


FIG.  1 1 6.     View  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  city  and  harbor,  Brazil.    The 
tooth-shaped  island  in  the  bay  is  called  the  Sugar-loaf 


234     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 


but  six  cities  with  a  population  exceeding  one  hundred 
thousand.     And  among  these  cities  Rio  is  not  only  much 


FIG.  117.     Monroe  Palace,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil.     Where  the 
third  International  American  Conference  was  held 

the  largest,  but  also  the  second  largest  in  all  South  Amer- 
ica, with  more  than  a  million  people.  It  is,  therefore, 
the  second  largest  city  in  the  southern  hemisphere.  In 
the  three  great  provinces  of  Amazonas,  Goyaz,  and 
Mat  to  Grosso  in  the  great  interior  of  Brazil,  which  have 
a  combined  area  almost  exactly  half  as  great  as  the  area 
of  the'  United  States,  there  are  only  three  cities — Manaos, 
Goyaz,  and  Cuyaba — with  a  population  exceeding  ten 
thousand. 

The  Famous  Harbor  at  Rio.  The  bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro 
is  one  of  the  great  scenic  features  of  the  world.  It 
forms  a  bottle-shaped  entrance  to  the  city  and  the  adjacent 
lands;  and  the  largest  steamers  of  the  world  find  here 


BRAZIL:    COUNTRY   OF   MANY   INTERESTS     235 

deep  water  and  capacious  anchorage  grounds.  To  the 
left  of  the  entrance  to  the  famous  bay  are  a  number  of 
fantastic  hills  that  look  strikingly  like  a  recumbent 
human  figure  and  have  therefore  been  called  "The  Stone 
Man."  The  curious  "Sugar-loaf"  forms  the  feet,  and  the 
"Gavia"  the  face  in  profile.  "The  bay  itself  presents 
one  of  the  grandest  prospects  it  is  possible  to  imagine. 
Huge  granitic  piles,  assuming  the  most  eccentric  outlines, 
present  steep  slopes  which  rise  sheer  above  the  surface 
and  take  on  either  side  of  the  entrance  the  aspect  of 
natural  fortresses."  (Keane.)  Except  for  the  narrow 
entrance  the  bay  is  landlocked ;  and  it  is  studded  with 
many  islands  and  rocky  crags,  some  of  which  are  fortified, 
as  are  also  some  of  the  surrounding  hills.  No  other  bay 
in  the  southern  hemisphere,  except  that  at  Sydney, 
New  South  Wales,  is  at  once  so  beautiful  and  so  service- 
able as  the  bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

The  slopes  of  the  mountains  that  inclose  the  bay  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro  are  covered  with  a  forest  of  tropical  trees 
and  shrubs.  There  is  an  almost  endless  variety  of  palms, 
long  creepers  festoon  the  giant  trees,  beautiful  flowers 
and  brightly  colored  insects  supply  gorgeous  colors,  and 
ferns  and  mosses  add  a  touch  of  delicate  beauty  that 
perfects  the  scene. 

The  Long  Barrier  Reef  of  Brazil.  Fringing  the  eastern 
shore  of  Brazil  for  several  hundred  miles  is  a  long  reef 
known  as  the  barrier  reef  of  Brazil.  Toward  the  south 
it  is  composed  chiefly  of  coral.  The  northern  part  of  it 
is  one  of  the  unique  features  not  only  of  Brazil  but  of 
South  America,  since  it  consists  not  of  coral  but  of  hard 
sandstone. 

It  is  explained  by  supposing  that  the  heavy  surf  once 
threw  up  a  long  reef  of  sand  such  as  the  reefs  that  now 
occur  along  the  eastern  coast  of  the  United  States  from 


236     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

Long  Island  to  Texas.  Back  of  the  reef  thus  formed- 
countless  millions  of  small  sea  organisms  lived,  and  their 
decaying  bodies  furnished  an  acid  that  with  the  salt  of 
the  sea  water  formed  a  cement.  In  past  ages  the  cement 
hardened  the  sand  and  transformed  it  into  sandstone. 
Some  sections  of  the  reef  are  just  at  the  water  surface, 
others  stand  some  distance  above,  and  still  others  are 
quite  submerged.  In  places  one  may  walk  along  it  for 
miles  without  stepping  into  the  water.  The  constant 
beating  of  the  waves  has  broken  it  here  and  there,  but 
on  the  whole  the  breaks  occur  only  where  rivers  from  the 
land  have  kept  open  a  passage. 

Within  the  reef  and  between  it  and  the  mainland  there 
is  a  long  strip  of  water  as  calm  and  peaceful  as  the  water 
of  the  outer  edge  is  rough.  The  harbor  of  Pernambuco 
(Fig.  107)  is  not  only  formed  by  the  lagoon  behind  the 
sand  reef,  but  it  is  also  protected  from  the  heavy  seas  by 
the  reef  itself,  which  in  this  case  has  been  raised  higher 
by  a  stone  wall  and  thus  converted  into  a  breakwater 
half  natural,  half  artificial. 

We  need  to  know  one  other  fact  about  this  part  of  the 
Brazilian  coast  to  understand  the  harbors.  The  land 
was  once  higher  than  now;  and  while  it  stood  at  the 
higher  elevation  the  rivers  cut  their  valleys  deep  below 
the  level  of  the  coastal  plateau  which  they  drain.  Later 
on  the  land  was  depressed,  or  drowned  as  geographers 
say;  each  river  valley  was  entered  by  the  sea  and  its 
lower  course  enlarged  into  a  bay.  For  this  reason  every 
river  has  a  sort  of  pouch-shaped  lower  portion,  on  whose 
shores  cities  have  grown  up  and  into  which  boats  may 
sail. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

AMAZONIA:   LAND   OF   GREAT  FORESTS 
AND   RIVERS 

A  Spanish  Admiral's  Opinion  of  the  Amazon.  Over 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  Lope  de  Aguirre,  an 
admiral  of  Spain,  made  a  long  voyage  down  the  Amazon 
and,  upon  reaching  the  coast,  sent  a  letter  to  his  king, 
Philip  II,  telling  him  about  the  river.  So  difficult  had 
been  the  journey  that  the  admiral  finished  his  letter  by 
saying,  "God  knows  how  we  got  through  that  great  mass 
of  water.  I  advise  thee,  O  great  king,  never  to  send 
Spanish  fleets  into  that  cursed  river.1'  This  advice  is 
.worth  recalling  here  to  show  how  difficult  is  the  great 
Amazon,  with  its  shifting  channels  and  sand  bars,  its 
plague  of  insects,  and  its  great  heat.  In  all  these  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years  man  has  really  learned  little 
about  the  river  except  at  those  places  where  the  valuable 
rubber  tree  is  found.  Many  a  village  on  the  Amazon  and 
its  tributaries  was  wholly  unknown  until  rubber  was  dis- 
covered in  the  region,  and  to-day  remains  un visited  by 
boats  except  those  propelled  by  the  paddle  and  the  oar. 

"  It  flows  at  times  for  hundreds  of  miles  without  passing 
a  human  habitation;  or  if  here  and  there,  along  this 
desolate  stretch,  smoke  arises  to  show  that  human  beings 
are  sheltered  beneath  the  roof  of  the  rude  hut  that  barely 
shows  itself  amid  the  tropical  green,  it  will  come  from  the 
fire  of  a  half  savage,  or  of  a  runaway  slave  who  has  hid- 
den himself  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  forest,  away  from  his 
enemy,  the  white  man.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  set- 
tle the  river,  but  the  Jesuits,  indefatigable  as  they  were, 
failed ;  and  the  people  of  [our]  South  who-  at  the  close  of 

23? 


238     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  war  came  to  Santarem,  were  equally  unsuccessful.  It 
remains  to-day,  as  it  has  been  for  ages,  silent  and  mys- 
terious, its  banks  unfrequented,  and  its  waters  unknown." 
(Church,  1878.)  Though  this  description  was  written 
long  ago  it  is  as  true  of  a  great  part  of  the  Amazon 
Basin  now  as  then,  and  serves  to  bring  out  the  fact  that 
there  are  but  few  people  in  all  this  vast  tract  of  alter- 
nating forest  and  stream  (Fig.  118.) 

The  Great  Amazon.  The  mouth  of  a  great  river  is 
often  the  gateway  to  a  great  country.  In  the  vast  interior 
of  South  America  one  may  travel  for  days,  even  weeks, 
across  or  up  or  down  stream  after  stream,  large  and 
small,  and  find  everywhere  that  the  water  is  moving 
toward  a  common  line,  the  Amazon.  The  entrance  to 
this  all  but  trackless  interior  is  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon 
north  of  Para.  It  is  therefore  not  without  reason  that 
the  people  of  Para  speak  of  the  Amazon  as  the  Mediter- 
ranean of  South  America.  One  may  sail  or  steam  up 
its  wide  mouth  as  up  a  great  arm  of  the  sea  and  not  be 


FIG.  1 1 8.     Settlement  on   the   Ar^azon   River.     Dense  tropical 
vegetation  and  heavily  thatched  houses 


AMAZONIA:     LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS   230 

able  to  make  out  either  bank,  so  distant  from  each  other 
are  the  opposite  sides  of  the  river.  One  might  put  the 
whole  of  Scotland  into  the  mouth  of  this  river  and  leave 
only  a  little  piece  projecting. 

The  Amazon  discharges  more  water  than  any  other 
river  in  the  world.  It  drains  an  area  about  the  size  of 
all  Europe.  Its  great  yellow  flood  of  waters  from  hundreds 
of  sources  discolors  the  sea  for  nearly  a  hundred  miles 
from  land.  Long  before  the  shores  of  Brazil  are  visible 
the  blue  of  the  tropical  sea  has  changed  into  the  murky 
brown  or  yellow  that  denotes  land  and  the  work  of  a 
great  river.  The  depth  of  the  river  is  in  places  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  feet.  Its  current  moves  at  a  speed  of 
two  and  one-half  miles  an  hour,  and  the  smaller  boats 
going  upstream  hug  the  bank  to  avoid  it,  while  those  going 
downstream  sail  in  midchannel. 

It  is  extremely  hard  to  realize  how  flat  is  the  Amazon 
channel  for  the  last  five  hundred  miles  of  its  course,  or 
from  the  Pas  de  Obispo  to  its  mouth.  In  this  distance 
the  river  "falls"  but  one  eighth  of  an  inch  a  mile!  We 
are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Mississippi  as  having  a 
very  flat  course  from  Cairo  to  the  Gulf,  with  a  grade  of 
three  or  four  inches  to  the  mile,  but  that  is  from  twenty- 
four  to  thirty-two  times  as  steep  as  the  lower  course  of 
the  Amazon.  Two  thousand  miles  from  its  mouth  it  is 
only  thirty-five  feet  above  sea  level.  The  Amazon  has 
the  flattest  river  course  in  the  world.  With  local  excep- 
tions, its  largest  tributaries,  the  Madeira  and  the  Negro, 
continue  this  feature  up  to  the  base  of  the  Andes,  where 
one  may  see  on  the  one  hand  lofty  mountains  whose 
summits  are  shrouded  in  clouds  and  on  the  other  hand  a 
vast  flat  plain  about  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  and 
yet  thirty-five  hundred  miles  distant  from  it  by  river. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Amazon  and  its  tributaries 


240     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


for  all  their  flatness  have  rocky  stretches  in  their  courses. 
Five  hundred  miles  from  the  Amazon's  mouth  are  the 
rocks  of  Obispo;  the  islands  at  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon 
are  in  part  rocky,  and  the  Madeira  has  a  line  of  thirteen 
falls  and  rapids  (Fig.  136)  in  a  stretch  over  two  hundred 

miles  long! 
Around  them 
a  railway  has 
been  built 
which  ends  at 
Porto  Velho 
and  to  which 
ocean-going 
ships  now  sail 
(Fig.  133)- 
These  condi- 
tions may  be 
easily  under- 
stood if  we 
realize  that 
the  river  does 
not  have  a 
regular  but  an 

irregular  descent.  The  figures  we  have  just  learned  show 
what  the  average  grade  is ;  but  long  stretches  of  the  river 
are  quite  flat.  They  are  in  fact  great  lakes  connected 
with  each  other  by  shorter  stretches  with  relatively 
steep  descents. 

The  lake-like,  flatter  portions  of  the  river  have  very 
irregular  and  indefinite  banks,  and  exhibit  a  wilderness  of 
land  and  water.  So  intricate  and  complex  are  the  side 
channels  that  it  is  often  exceedingly  difficult  to  make  out 
the  main  ship  channel  which  the  boat  is  to  follow.  The  side 
channels,  called  igarapes  (or  "canoe  paths")  and  parands 


FIG.  119..   A  tropical  forest  on  the  banks  of  a  trib- 
utary of  the  A  mazon.     Every  year  the  river 
rises  and  overflows  the  forest  for  miles 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS     241 

by  the  Indians,  run  for  long  distances  parallel  to  the 
river  and  intersect  the  tributaries  so  that  one  may  go  by 
canoe  from  Santarem  one  thousand  miles  up  the  Amazon 
without  once  entering  or  even  sighting  the  main  stream 
(Fig.  120). 

When  the  rains  are  heaviest,  and  the  water  rises  spread- 
ing far  and  wide  over  the  country,  the  river  becomes  still 
more  irregular  in  its  course.  The  flood  spreads  through 
the  forest  near  by,  and  turns  large  portions  of  the  country 
into  vast  lakes  (Fig.  119).  When  the  floods  subside  the 
river's  course  becomes  more  definite.  In  many  places  a 
new  course  is  formed,  the  old  one  having  been  partly 
filled  with  sand  and  mud.  Altogether  the  river  is  most 
irregular  in  its  behavior  and  very  uncertain  for  navigation. 

The  main  stream  of  the  Amazon  is  about  four  thousand 
miles  long,  or  six  hundred  miles  longer  than  the  distance 
from  Liverpool  to  New  York.  It  has  fourteen  large 
tributaries,  each  a  great  river  in  itself.  It  offers  a  means 
for  inland  navigation  for  more  than  twenty  thousand 
miles.  The  source  of  the  river  is  only  sixty  miles  from 
Lima,  near  the  Pacific  coast  and  close  to  the  silver  mines 


SKETCH      MAP 
OF    THE 

AMAZON 

the  mouth  of  the 
TAPAJOS 


FIG.  120.     The  Amazon  and  the  Tapajos 


242     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


of  Cerro  de  Pasco  in  the  little  lake  of  Lauricocha,  just 
below  the  limit  of  perpetual  winter.  Thus  it  is  seen 
practically  to  cross  South  America  from  west  to  east 
at  very  nearly  the  widest  part  of  the  continent.  Its 
great  length,  and  the  fact  that  it  almost  crosses  the  con- 
tinent, makes  it 
one  of  the  greatest 
highways  in  South 
America.  Its  many 
tributaries  drain 
a  vast  region  that 
produces  rubber, 
cacao,  and  tropi- 
cal woods  which 
would  be  of  little 
use  to  man  were  it 
not  for  this  great 
natural  pathway 
(Figs.ngandi2i). 
The  Forests  of 
Mystery.  The 
heat  and  heavy 
rainfall  of  the  Am- 
azon valley  unite 
to  produce  one  of 
the  few  really 
The  density  and 
In  many 


FIG.  121.  Canoe  travel  in  the  Amazon  Basin. 
Yuracare  Indians 
canoe  upstream 


great  tropical  forests  of  the  world, 
luxuriance  of  the  Brazilian  forests  pass  belief, 
places  the  plants  crowd  into  every  space  and  make  such 
a  mass  of  vegetation  that  only  by  hewing  a  way  through 
it  is  it  possible  to  travel.  A  landing  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  is  in  many  places  impossible  on  account  of  the  wall 
of  vegetation  that  leans  in  places  far  out  over  the  edge 
of  the  stream.  This  is  the  most  extensive  and  unbroken 


AMAZONIA:     LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS     243 

tropical  forest  in  the  world.  One  may  travel  for  weeks, 
even  months,  and  find  scarcely  an  acre  of  ground  that  is 
not  occupied  by  trees.  So  thickly  do  they  stand  and  so 
completely  does  their  foliage  shut  out  the  sun  that  the 
interior  of  a  tropical  forest  is  gloomy  and  solemn.  Every 
plant  seems  to  be  crowding  its  neighbor  for  light  and  air 
and  room  in  which  to  grow.  The  huge  trunks  of  the 
tallest  trees  bear  aloft  a  crown  of  leaves  that  reach  out  over 
the  tops  of  all  the  other  plants.  But  about  the  tall 
trunks  are  wound  the  stems  of  plants  called  parasites  and 
epiphytes  'that  get  their  food  from  the  trees  or  live  on 
them  and  use  the  tree  trunks  to  send  their  crown  of  leaves 
to  the  top  of  the  forest.  Below,  all  is  dark;  it  is  toward 
the  top  of  the  forest  that  all  the  plants  are  struggling. 
So  dark  and  gloomy  is  the  interior  that  it  is  with  a 


FIG.  122.     Indians  and  canoe  on  the  Rio  Chapare,  eastern  Bolivia. 

The  canoe  is    of  cedar  and  will  carry  ten   or  twelve   people. 

The  long  poles  are  used  in  shoving  the  canoe  upstream; 

going   downstream,   the  Indians  use 

broad  short-bladed  paddles 


244        SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

sense  of  relief  that  one  comes  out  upon  the  river  bank 
or  the  trail  and  again  looks  at  sun  and  sky.  It  is  on  the 
side  of  a  trail  or  on  the  Dank  of  a  stream  that  one  sees 
the  real  beauty  of  the  tropical  forest.  Here  one  may 
find  masses  of  bushes,  shrubs,  and  trees  of  every  height, 
rising  one  above  the  other.  The  brilliant  coloring  of  the 
flowers  stands  out  sharply  against  the  background  of 
solid  green  and  gives  a  charm  that  is  lacking  in  the  dark 
interior. 

Yet  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  tropical  forest 
offers  charms  lovelier  than  those  found  in  the  forests  of 
the  temperate  zone  in  which  we  live.  Trees  of  a  given 
kind  do  not  stand  thickly  together.  The  spaces  between 
the  trees  are  so  crowded  with  vines  and  underbrush 
that  there  are  no  beautiful  woodland  aisles  as  in  our 
forests.  There  is  no  carpet  of  leaves  and  grass.  The 
sunlight  is  nearly  shut  out,  and  one  misses  the  dappled 
effect  that  beautifies  the  stately  forests  of  pine,  redwood, 
and  beech  in  this  country.  There  may  be  beautiful 
flowers  in  the  tropical  forest,  but  for  every  flaming  blossom 
to  be  found  there,  one  as  beautiful  may  be  found  in  our 
fields  and  pastures.  Nor  are  there  open  glades  where 
the  sunlight  comes  in  and  gives  light  to  grass  and  woodland 
flowers.  Luxuriant,  but  overcrowded;  dense,  but  im- 
penetrable; decorated  with  blossoms  along  the  river 
banks,  but  with  a  gloomy  interior — these  qualities  of  the 
tropical  forest  make  the  traveler  glad  to  return  to  the 
cool  and  lovely  woods  of  his  northern  home. 

In  this  land  of  abundant  vegetation  and  of  many  kinds 
of  plants  one  might  suppose  it  possible  at  a  moment's 
notice  to  get  food  enough  for  a  meal.  This  is  by  no  means 
the  case.  The  forest  plants  must  be  improved  or  new 
plants  brought  in  from  outside  lands  before  man  finds  it 
possible  to  live  here.  There  are  fish  in  the  rivers  and 


AMAZONIA:     LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS     245 

wild  animals  in  the  forest,  but  even  the  Indians  require 
vegetable  food  and  almost  every  tribe  has  its  cultivated 
patches  of  yuca  or  manioc  from  which  they  wander  for  a 
limited  time  only ;  and  the  white  man  finds  that  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  is  absolutely  necessary  for  a  prolonged 
stay  in  the  forest.  An  Indian  turned  loose  in  a  strange 
part  of  the  forest,  and  without  tools  of  any  sort  or  bows 
and  arrows,  would  have  a  hard  time  finding  food  enough 
to  eat,  and  indeed  he  might  actually  starve  in  the  midst 
of  the  most  abundant  vegetation.  The  reason  for  this  is 
that  so  few  plants  in  the  tropical  forest  are  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  man.  The  corn  and  the  yuca,  the  rice  and 
the  oranges,  do  not  grow  wild  or,  if  they  do,  they  are  not 
the  kinds  that  are  good  for  food.  An  opening  must  be 
cleared  in  the  forest,  the  brush  and  the  trees  must  be 
burned,  useless  plants  kept  out,  and  man  must  fight  to 
keep  useful  plants  that  serve  his  needs  (Figs.  122  and  123.) 

Wild  Indian  Tribes  of  the  Amazon  Basin.  Within  the 
wide  borders  of  the  Amazon  Basin  there  are  a  great 
many  different  tribes  of  Indians  with  varying  customs 
and  ways  of  getting  a  living.  All  of  them  are  very  sim- 
ple, all  eat  plain  food,  and  all  have  rude  huts  and  a 
barbarous  speech.  All  live  in  tribes  held  together  by 
the  loosest  bonds  —  food  supply  and  protection  against 
unfriendly  neighbors.  The  rivers  supply  a  portion  of 
their  food.  The  land  supplies  a  few  game  animals,  such 
as  the  monkey,  the  sloth,  and  the  wild  pig  or  peccary, 
and  a  few  vegetables  which  require  but  little  cultivation. 

They  are  all  ignorant  and  without  ambition  to  lift 
themselves  above  their  dreary  surroundings.  Left  to 
themselves  they  would  for  centuries  to  come,  if  not  for- 
ever, remain  in  the  same  low  state  in  which  they  were 
found  by  the  earliest  explorers.  They  have  no  written 
language  and  their  spoken  language  consists  of  a  few 


246     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

hundred  words  only,  the  names  of  common  objects,  such 
as  the  animals  they  hunt,  the  food  they  eat,  and  the  plains 
and  the  streams  about  them.  Some  are  wholly  without 
religion,  others  believe  in  good  and  bad  spirits,  and  a  good 
many  have  myths  about  the  creation  of  the  world  and 
the  manner  in  which  their  particular  tribe  came  into  it. 


FlG.  123.     The  Juntas  valley,  eastern  slopes  of  the  Bolivian 
Andes.     The  mountain  slopes  produce  coca  and  fruit 


AMAZONIA:     LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS   247 

The  Wretched  Mura  Indians  at  Matari.  It  will  be 
interesting  to  look  at  a  few  of  the  wild  tribes  and  see  in 
what  manner  they  live,  where  their  food  supply  conies 
from,  and  how  they  differ  from  their  neighbors.  First 
of  all  we  shall  describe  the  life  of  a  wild  Indian  tribe  of 
the  lower  Amazon,  the  Mura  Indians  at  Matari.  A 
village  consists  of  about  twenty  flimsy  mud  hovels  on 
the  edge  of  a  luxuriant  forest.  There  are  no  cultivated 
trees  or  plants  about,  and  the  whole  appearance  of  the 
place  is  forlorn  and  poverty-stricken.  The  people  are 
timid  and  distrustful  and  their  appearance  is  not  improved 
by  the  black  mud  with  which  their  bodies  are  begrimed 
as  a  protection  against  mosquitoes.  The  children  go  about 
naked.  The  women  wear  petticoats  of  coarse  cloth  blotched 
with  a  dye,  called  murixi,  that  is  made  from  the  bark  of 
a  tree.  Sometimes  necklaces  of  monkey's  teeth  are  worn. 

Originally  these  dirty  savages  lived  along  the  lower 
Madeira  and  were  part  of  the  great  Caraio  nation  that 
consisted  of  a  group  of  agricultural  tribes  of  far  nobler 
character  and  ways  of  life.  But  for  centuries  they  have 
lived  in  low-lying  forest  areas  often  covered  with  water. 
The  miserable  land  and  the  wretched  surroundings 
have  degraded  them.  Once  they  lived  in  well-made 
houses,  had  gardens,  and  a  knowledge  of  weaving  and 
pottery;  now  they  are  among  the  lowest  tribes  of  the 
world.  They  have  become  a  nation  of  nomadic  fisher- 
men, ignorant  of  agriculture  and  all  the  other  industries 
known  to  the  people  from  which  they  came. 

They  live  in  separate  families  or  small  groups,  and 
wander  from  place  to  place  along  the  banks  of  rivers  and 
the  shores  of  lakes  in  search  of  food.  At  each  resting 
place  they  build  rude  huts  at  the  edge  of  the  stream  on 
which  they  live  for  a  short  time.  Their  canoes  were  once 
made  of  the  bark  of  a  tree  bound  into  shape  by  vines,  but 


248     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

these  are  now  rarely  seen.  Their  food  is  chiefly  fish  and 
turtles,  which  they  shoot  skillfully  with  bows  and  arrows. 
Fish  is  to  these  people  what  the  seal  is  to  the  people  of 
Greenland.  Their  only  method  of  cooking  is  by  roasting, 
and  as  a  general  rule  their  only  vegetable  foods  are  bananas 
and  wild  fruits.  The  filth,  poverty,  and  deep  savagery 
of  the  Muras  afford  a  remarkable  example  of  the  effect  of 
the  swampy  lands  in  which  they  maintain  a  miserable 
existence. 

The  Yuracare  Indians  of  Eastern  Bolivia.  Along  the 
banks  of  the  Rio  Chapare  in  eastern  Bolivia  may  be 
found  the  savage  Yuracare  Indians  who  build  their  huts 
chiefly  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  creeks,  and  bayous 
that  thread  the  low-lying  lands  in  which  they  dwell. 
(Figs.  121  and  124).  Sometimes  a  hut  or  group  of  huts 
is  built  some  distance  away  from  the  river  at  the  end  of 
a  narrow  trail,  so  well  concealed  that  it  can  be  seen  only 
by  trained  eyes.  These  huts  are  made  of  strong  wooden 
posts  supporting  a  thatched  roof  and  generally  have  only 
one  wall.  Laid  out  under  the  roof  and  upon  the  beams 
are  bows  and  arrows,  paddles,  and  a  few  skins.  In 
these  huts  the  Indians  sleep,  and  cook  either  in  iron 
kettles  obtained  from  traders  or  by  roasting  over  a  fire. 
Usually  there  are  a  few  cultivated  garden  patches  about, 
containing  corn  and  yuca,  the  latter  being  a  root  or  tuber 
somewhat  like  the  yam,  but  with  a  mealy  structure  and 
almost  without  taste. 

The  food  of  the  garden  is  only  a  part  of  their  living, 
however.  They  hunt  in  the  forests  with  bow,  arrow,  and 
knife.  They  are  very  fond  of  the  monkey,  and  the  wild 
pig  or  peccary.  They  also  catch  fish,  of  which  there  are 
many  fine  varieties  in  the  streams.  These  they  shoot 
with  great  skill,  for  from  childhood  the  men  have  been 
taught  the  use  of  the  bow  and  arrow. 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS     249 


A  traveler  once  engaged  several  Indians  and  Indian 
boys  to  run  his  canoe,  and  once  a  day  they  stopped  in 
some  quiet,  shallow  stretch  of  the  river  to  fish.  Often 
they  shot  five  or  six 
in  quick  succession, 
but  some  of  the  fish 
were  so  large  that 
they  swam  off  with 
the  arrow,  dived 
and  rose  again,  and 
darted  this  way 
and  that,  only  to 
die  at  last  and  float 
on  the  surface. 
When  enough  fish 
had  been  caught  the 
canoe  was  drawn 
up  on  the  bank,  a 
fire  started,  and  the 
fish  roasted.  After 
the  meal  was  fin- 
ished the  Indians 
took  the  oily  pieces  that  were  left  and  greased  their  faces, 
legs,  and  arms  to  prevent  the  mosquitoes  from  biting 
them. 

The  Indian  canoes  are  made  of  logs  of  cedar  which  are 
hollowed  out  with  fire,  stone,  and  steel.  These  are  often 
of  great  size.  Fig.  122  shows  one  thirty  feet  long  and 
three  feet  wide  that  will  hold  a  dozen  men.  The  canoes 
are  paddled  by  long-handled  and  short-bladed  paddles 
operated  with  a  short,  jerky  stroke.  Going  upstream 
against  the  current  they  use  paddles  only  in  the  quieter 
water.  Where  the  current  is  swift  they  tow  the  canoe 
with  strands  of  tough  bark  cut  from  one  of  the  forest 


FIG.  124.     A' Bolivian  Indian  shooting  fish 
with  bow  and  arrow  from  his  canoe 
in  the  Rio  Chapare 


250     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

trees.     Whenever    in    traveling    along    the    river    they 
become  hungry,  they  run  the  canoe  into  the  bank,  start 


FIG.   125.     The  kind  of  house  used  by  the  valley  and  plains  people 

of  eastern  Bolivia.     It  is  almost  all  roof  to  protect  the  people 

from   the   rains   that  fall   almost  every   day 

a  fire,  and  roast  some  fish  and  yuca.  The  sand  bars 
along  the  rivers  contain  many  remains  of  such  camp 
fires  and  rude  shelters  of  bark  and  leaves  occupied  at 
night.  These  are  also  used  by  traders  and  other  travelers, 
who  find  the  sand  bars  dry  and  usually  with  enough 
sun-dried  wood  for  a  camp  fire. 

The  Yuracares  obtain  cotton  cloth  from  passing 
traders,  but  their  clothing  is  still  made  largely  from  the 
inner  bark  of  trees  which,  by  drying  and  pounding,  is 
made  into  a  kind  of  coarse-textured  garment  that  looks 
like  a  long  shirt.  They  are  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  the 
countless  mosquitoes  that  swarm  out  of  the  river  swamps 
at  sunset,  and  their  bare  arms  and  legs  are  often  cruelly 
bitten  and  swollen.  They  decorate  their  faces  with  a 
red  ochre,  daubing  the  paint  over  it  in  long  streaks  and 
dots.  Their  life  seems  hard  and  cheerless,  but  we  must 


AMAZONIA:     LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS     251 

remember  that  they  have  never  known  any  other  life 
than  this  and  therefore  regard  their  home  in  the  same 
contented  way  in  which  we  regard  ours. 

Indian  Slaves  in  the  Rubber  Forests.  Many  Indian 
tribes  of  the  Amazon  Basin,  and  indeed  of  many  other 
places  in  South  America,  are  held  by  the  whites  in  a  kind 
of  slavery.  In  Amazonia  this  is  not  called  slavery  but 
"peonage,"  though  it  would  take  a  great  deal  of  study  to 
enable  one  to  see  any  difference  between  the  two.  It  is 
a  cruel  and  wicked  system  and  ought  to  be  abolished  by 
law.  Whole  tribes  may  be  captured  and  taken  long 
distances  in  canoes  to  the  places  where  they  are  to  be 
set  to  work  in  the  rubber  districts  or  on  the  cacao  planta- 
tions. There  they  are  given  a  set  of  tools  with  which  to 
work,  clothes  to  wear,  and  a  shed  in  which  to  sleep.  These 
articles  are  all  charged  against  them  at  ridiculously  high 
prices,  and  the  Indian,  who  does  not  wish  to  buy  the 
articles  in  the  first  place,  is  said  to  be  in  debt  to  the 
man  who  "sold"  them  to  him,  the  man  who  is  practically 
his  owner  or  master.  Now  it  is  a  law  of  the  land  that 
if  an  Indian  is  in  debt  to  a  white  man  he  must  work  for 
him  until  the  debt  is  paid.  If,  during  the  time  that  he  is 
working  off  the  debt,  he  tries  to  run  away,  or  does  not 
work  when  he  is  told  to,  he  may  be  flogged  by  an  officer 
of  the  town  to  whom  the  owner  makes  complaint.  In 
this  way  an  Indian  is  often  whipped  for  not  working  to 
pay  for  something  he  was  obliged  to  take. 

The  slave  owner  always  sees  to  it  that  his  Indian  rubber 
gatherers  never  get  out  of  debt.  This  he  does  by  crediting 
them  with  very  little  pay  for  their  work  and  charging 
them  very  much  for  the  poor  clothing,  food,  and  tools 
that  he  supplies.  If  the  owner  of  a  slave  wishes  to  sell 
him,  he  does  so  for  the  amount  that  the  Indian  is  in 
debt  to  him.  It  is  altogether  a  shameful  practice  and  is 


252     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

feebly  excused  by  the  men  who  engage  in  it  by  saying 
that  the  Indian  is  lazy  and  will  not  work,  even  if  you 
pay  him  well;  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  work  to  be 
done  and  the  Indian  is  the  only  laborer  to  be  found; 
that  if  rubber  and  cacao  are  produced  the  Indian  must 
produce  them;  and  if  the  Indian  will  not  produce  them 
for  pay,  he  must  be  made  to  work  even  if  he  must  be 
treated  like  a  slave. 

The  lack  of  labor  in  the  Amazon  Basin  is  one  of  its 
chief  defects.  Along  some  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Rio 
Negro  there  are  rubber  forests  which  are  of  great  value, 
but  in  which  there  is  a  total  absence  of  people.  Foreign 
labor  cannot  be  introduced  because  it  is  very  expensive 
and  few  men  can  be  persuaded  to  make  their  homes  in 
so  unhealthful  a  lowland.  Either  the  rubber  and  cacao 
of  the  Amazon  valley  must  in  large  part  and  for  a  long 
time  to  come  remain  untouched  or  a  system  of  slavery, 
such  as  at  present  is  found  there,  must  be  maintained. 
There  is  a  third  possibility,  and  one  for  which  the  world 
is  waiting  with  great  interest:  we  may  soon  discover 


FIG.  126.     Santa  Rosa,  Bolivia,  one  of  the  eastern  towns  at  the  head- 
waters of  a  plains  stream.     To  Santa  Rosa  come  boatloads 
of  rubber  from  the  plains  and  caravans  of  merchandise 
from  the  highlands 


AMAZONIA:     LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS   253 

means  for  preventing  those  dreadful  diseases  that  make 
portions  of  the  tropics  so  dangerous  for  the  white  man. 
Malaria  and  yellow  fever  are  now  in  part  subdued,  but 
bubonic  plague,  beriberi,  and  a  few  other  diseases  still 
remain  frightful  scourges  of  the  Amazonian  lowlands. 
No  large  number  of  white  laborers  will  ever  be  found 
there  unless  tropical  diseases  .are  conquered  and  life  made 
safer  than  now.  The  white  men  who  go  into  the  region 
to-day  do  so,  in  the  main,  as  officials,  rubber  agents, 
adventurers,  or  outlaws.  Rubber  collecting  has  until 
recently  been  the  most  profitable  occupation  of  the  basin, 
and  huge  profits  were  formerly  made  in  a  short  time. 
The  competition  of  the  rubber  plantations  of  India  and 
the  East  Indies  has  lowered  the  price  of  rubber  to  less 
than  half  its  former  level,  and  the  Amazon  rubber  industry 
is  rapidly  losing  in  importance. 

Humboldt's  Dream  of  Great  Cities  on  the  Amazon. 
When  the  great  explorer  Humboldt  visited  the  Amazon 
valley  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  region  was 
almost  unknown  to  the  civilized  world  and  its  resources 
were  almost  untouched.  Humboldt  dreamed  of  the  day 
when  there  would  be  a  large  population  in  the  valley, 
teeming  cities,  and  great  industries.  But  his  dream 
has  not  been  realized  and  will  not  be  for  many  years  to 
come,  probably  never,  unless  man  finds  some  way  to 
conquer  tropical  diseases,  the  weakening  effects  of  great 
heat,  and  the  torment  of  insects  that  makes  life  so  trou- 
blesome. Until  then  we  shall  have  the  scattered  tribes 
we  now  find  there,  tribes  that  cling  to  the  river  banks  and 
to  whom  the  river  is  the  only  highway  from  place  to 
place,  the  source  of  part  of  their  food,  and  the  sole  relief 
from  the  gloom  of  the  dense  forest  (Figs.  125  and  126). 

The  people  who  dwell  in  Amazonia  are  not  scattered 
broadcast  over  a  vast  area.  They  live  as  a  rule  in  small 


254     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

bands  on  the  banks  of  the  streams  or,  for  the  sake  of 
protection,  in  isolated  settlements  near  the  river  (Fig.  127). 


FIG.  127.     Village  on  Javary  River 

Along  many  of  the  rivers  one  may  find  fewer  people 
than  there  are  miles  of  stream.  On  some  of  the  main 
rivers  there  are  small  towns  and  villages  every  few  miles, 
and  near  the  mouth  of  the  Negro  one  comes  with  surprise 
upon  Manaos —  a  large  city  in  the  center  of  a  tropical 
forest  (Fig.  128). 

A  Modern  City  in  the  Heart  of  the  Amazon  Valley. 
It  was  the  slave  raids  in  which  the  whites  captured 
Indians  for  service  on  the  plantations  and  rubber  districts 
of  the  lower  Amazon  that  gave  rise  to  Manaos.  The 
Paulistas,  half-breed  slave  raiders  from  Sao  Paulo,  con- 
ducted raiding  expeditions  in  the  upper  Amazon  waters 
and  built  there  an  outpost  to  protect  their  base  of  opera- 
tions and  keep  up  traffic  with  the  planters  to  whom  they 
sold  the  kidnaped  people.  In  this  way  a  city  grew  up 
which  was  named  Manaos  after  a  now  extinct  Indian 
tribe,  once  the  head  of  a  great  nation  of  Indians. 

To-day  the  river  port  of  Manaos  is  a  thriving  place  of 
more  than  fifty  thousand  people,  enjoying  cable  connec- 
tion with  the  outside  world  (Figs.  128  and  129).  Rubber 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      255 

in  large  quantities  is  brought  from  far  and  wide.  It  is 
floated  down  all  the  rivers  in  launches,  batelaos  (Fig.  130), 
and  canoes.  Here  are  gathered  the  cacao  and  hides, 
the  dyewoods  and  the  tropical  woods  that  are  shipped  to 
the  United  States  and  to  Europe.  It  is  here,  too,  that  the 
manufactured  goods  come  which  are  distributed  through 
a  large  part  of  Amazonia  by  the  traders  and  rubber 
gatherers.  With  the  growth  in  numbers  of  steam  vessels 
of  light  draft  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Amazon,  and  with 
the  slow  increase  of  river  population,  Manaos  is  likely  to 
become  a  much  larger  city  than  it  is  at  present. 

The  Land  of  Rubber.  The  great  business  of  the 
Amazon  valley,  or  Amazonia  as  it  is  often  called,  is  the 
gathering,  the  curing,  and  the  sale  of  rubber.  In  few 
other  places  in  the  world  can  one  find  the  people  so 
generally  engaged  in  the  rubber  industry  as  here.  It 
will  be  worth  while,  therefore,  to  see  under  what  condi- 
tions the  rubber  tree  grows  and  how  the  industry  is 
carried  on.  On  the  river  plains  certain  kinds  of  rubber 
trees  thrive  on  low  islands  and  flood  plains  submerged 
for  several  months  each  year.  Ground  that  is  covered 
with  water  most  of  the  year  or  ground  that  is  never 
flooded  is  not  suitable  for  these  species.  At  least  some 
of  the  young  rubber  plants  seem  to  require  shade  and  still 


FIG.  128.     General  view  of  the  port  of  Manaos,  Rio  Negro,  Amazon 

Basin 


256     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

air.     Other  species  of  rubber  trees  grow  on  higher  ground 
at  a  distance  from  the  river  where  floods  never  reach  or 


FIG.  129.     Mandos  market,  on  the  Rio  Negro,  Amazon  Basin 

on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  mountains  along  the  western 
border  of  the  Amazon  basin.  The  best  rubber  districts, 
however,  are  found  in  low  country  along  or  near  the 
rivers  (Plate  XI). 

The  peons  or  slaves  employed  in  the  rubber  industry 
are  given  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
trees  apiece,  and  these  they  must  visit  daily  during  the 
gathering  season.  The  rubber  collector  uses  a  long  knife 
called  a  machete  to  cut  a  path  -through  the  dense  under- 
growth to  each  tree  that  he  wishes  to  tap.  At  times  he 
is  knee-deep  in  mud  or  up  to  his  waist  in  water.  As  soon 
as  he  reaches  a  rubber  tree  he  chips  away  the  rough  parts 
of  the  bark,  so  as  to  make  a  smooth  place  for  a  cup,  and 
then  with  his  ax  cuts  a  small  gash.  Another  and  another 
is  made,  until  there  is  a  line  of  them  girdling  the  tree. 
Into  each  gash  he  inserts  a  tin  cup  or  with  a  small  piece 
of  clay  fastens  the 'cup  underneath  the  gash  in  the  tree. 
On  the  next  day  the  gashes  in  the  trees  are  made  a  little 
lower  down  and  the  cups  are  also  set  lower.  Some 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS    2*57 

collectors  tap  the  trees  in  the  morning  and  gather  the  sap 
in  the  evening,  while  others  gash  the  trees  in  the  evening 
and  gather  the  sap  in  the  morning  (Fig  131.)  A  good 
collector  on  the  lower  Amazon  gathers  about  seven  pounds 
daily;  in  the  upper  Amazon  several  times  this  amount 
may  be  collected. 

The  half-liquid  substance  that  drips  into  the  tin  cups  is 
poured  into  a  light  gourd  which  holds  the  contents  of  five 
hundred  to  seven  hundred  cups.  After  the  drippings  of 
several  days  have  been  gathered  into  a  clay  bowl,  the 
rubber  collector  lights  a  fire  in  his  hut  or  in  the  open, 
places  a  clay  funnel  over  it,  pours  a  thin  coating  of  latex 
or  "milk"  over  a  paddle,  and  holds  it  in  the  smoke  to 
thicken  and  "cure."  As  soon  as  this  is  done  he  again 
covers  the  paddle  (with  the  first  layer  of  cured  sap  still 
on  it)  with  fresh  sap  and  smokes  or  cures  this  in  turn. 
When  he  has  in  this  way  cured  a  ball  of  sap  as  large  as 
can  readily  be  held  and  turned  in  the  smoke,  he  slits  the 
whole  mass  down  the  side  and  so  releases  the  paddle. 
The  fuel  generally  used  in  the  curing  of  rubber  is  the 


FIG.  130.    Bolivian  rubber  unloaded  from  batelaos  for  shipment 
by  railway 

17 


258     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


nut  of  the  cerba-in,  a  kind  of  palm.     This  is  more  easily 
gathered  and  carried  to  the  places  where  it  is  used  than 

~ — ' -~ 


FIG.  131. 


courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

Rubber  gatherer's  home  on  the  upper  Amazon  River 


any  other  fuel,  gives. -out  a  continuous  dense  smoke,  and 
seems  to  give  a  betfei  v  to  the  rubber  than  any- 

thing else  that  has  ever  been  tried.  The  wood  of  certain 
kinds  of  palm  trees  is  also  employed  where  the  nuts  are 
difficult  to  collect. 

After  a  season's  crop  of  rubber  has  been  gathered  it  is 
sent  to  the  great  gathering  centers:  San  Antonio,  Manaos, 
Para  (Fig.  134),  and  other  river  towns  (Fig.  126).  It  is 
shipped  in  canoes,  of  the  sort  described  on  page  249,  or 
in  batelaos,  or  steam  launches.  The  batelao  (Fig.  132)  is 
a  sort  of  barge  operated  with  poles  and  paddles  and  able 
to  carry  from  a  few  hundred  pounds  to  several  tons.  One 
end  of  it  is  often  covered  with  a  sort  of  roof  or  awning 
of  grass  and  poles  of  bamboo,  as  a  shelter  from  the  hot 
sun.  The  batelaos  are  strongly  built  to  withstand  the 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      259 

hard  usage  to  which  they  are  subjected  on  the  trip  to  the 
rubber  port.  This  is  especially  true  of  those  employed  on 
the  Madeira  and  its  branches,  for  a  long  line  of  falls  and 
rapids  occurs  between  a  point  above  the  junction  of  the 
Beni  and  the  Mamore  and  the  village  of  Porto  Velho 
(Figs.  133  and  136). 

The  Commerce  in  Rubber.  In  the  past  fifteen  years 
rubber  has  become  a  very  precious  substance  —  one  of 
the  most  important  articles  in  the  world's  markets — and 
has  been  made  to  serve  man  in  almost  countless  ways. 
Rubbers,  coats,  bicycle  tires,  and  especially  automobile 
tires  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  purposes  for  which  man 
finds  the  rubber  best  suited.  Thousands  upon  thousands 
of  men  are  engaged  in  gathering  it  and  taking  it  from 
plantation  to  market.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  half 
the  world's  rubber  is  produced  in  the  Amazon  Basin  and 
one  may  get  some  idea  of  what  rubber  means  to  the 
people  who  live  in  Amazonia.  We  may  think  of  every 
other  rubber  tire,  every  other  rubber  storm-proof  coat, 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.   132.     Hauling  a  batelao  across  the  falls  of  the  Madeira, 
Brazil 


260     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

every  other  overshoe  that  we  see,  as  having  been  made 
out  of  rubber  that  came  from  the  Amazon  Basin, — rubber 
gathered  by  Indian  peons,  smoked  over  palm  nuts,  pad- 
dled down  rivers  that  thread  the  tropical  forests,  and  then 
taken  over  a  long  ocean  route  to  the  great  ports  of  the 
world.  With  the  recent  great  increase  in  the  use  and 
therefore  in  the  demand  and  the  price  of  rubber,  the 
Amazon  Basin  has  been  scoured  for  trees  that  will  pro- 
duce it  and  for  men  to  tap  the  trees  and  collect  the  latex. 
Many  formerly  unheard-of  villages  in  the  depths  of  the 
vast  Amazonian  forest  have  become  known  because  of 
their  relation  to  the  rubber  industry,  and  some  of  them 
have  grown  to  be  towns  of  considerable  size  and  impor- 
tance. Manaos  and  San  Antonio  have  long  been  known; 
but  Riberalta,  Iquitos  (Fig.  135),  Trinidad,  and  Acre  are 
places  that  have  come  into  prominence  only  within  recent 
years.  This  is  true  of  Iquitos  especially.  Only  a  few 
years  ago  it  kept  up  a  feeble  trade  in  the  upper  Amazon 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 


FIG.  133.     Madeira- Mamore  Railroad  and  Porto  Velho,  Brazil 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      261 

valley  by  means  of  the  paddle  and  the  dugout  canoe. 
Almost  nothing  of  value  was  exported.     It  was  one  of 


FIG.  134.     Boat  landing  at  Para 

the  remote  and  unimportant  villages  in  the  heart  of  a 
vast  forest.  Now  Iquitos  is  an  important  river  port. 
The  growth  of  the  rubber  industry  has  changed  it  com- 
pletely. There  is  a  regular  monthly  steamship  service 
to  Liverpool  and  also  to  New  York.  Almost  the  entire 
outgoing  cargo  of  these  steamships  is  rubber.  More 
than  half  the  people  of  the  city  depend  upon  rubber  for 
a  living.  With  the  growth  of  the  rubber  business  at 
Iquitos  a  better  means  of  gathering  it  had  to  be  found. 
The  dugout  canoes  were  too  slow  and  uncertain.  Steam 
launches  were  tried  in  their  place  and  found  to  work  so 
well  that  now  one  may  find  them  on  almost  every  large 
tributary  of  the  Amazon.  They  are  owned  chiefly  by 
the  merchants  of  the  town,  whose  "clients,"  to  whom 
they  loan  provisions  and  supplies,  steam  away  to  the 


262     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

rubber  district  in  which  they  have  bought  the  gathering 
rights,  collect  a  load  of  rubber,  return  to  Iquitos,  and  pay 
for  their  provisions  with  rubber. 

The  steam  launch,  however,  has  not  entirely  driven 
out  the  use  of  the  canoe.  There  are  still  thousands  of 
rubber  gatherers,  and  many  thousands  more  of  wild 
Indians,  to  whom  the  canoe  is  the  only  means  of  going 
from  place  to  place  (Fig.  121).  The  forest  is  so  vast,  the 
spaces  between  the  streams  so  wide,  and  the  trails  so  few 
and  so  short  that  the  rivers  are  still  the  great  and  almost 


FIG.  135.     Iquitos,  Peru,  at  head  of  steamer  navigation  on  the  Amazon 

the  only  highways.  And  where  the  launch  cannot  be 
afforded  the  canoe  is  the  only  means  of  river  transport 
besides  the  batelao.  Many  rubber  gatherers  still  use  it, 
and  almost  all  operate  on  the  same  system  that  prevails 
at  Iquitos,  getting  their  supplies  on  credit  and  paying  for 
the  supplies  in  crude  rubber.  Rubber  is  the  currency, 
so  to  speak,  of  the  Amazon  valley.  If  a  physician  can  be 
found  to  set  a  broken  arm  or  leg,  he  is  paid  in  rubber;  if 
a  man  buys  a  boat  or  some  rice  or  a  mule,  he  pays  for  it 
in  rubber.  Amazonia  is  truly  the  land  of  rubber. 

While  the  rubber  industry  has  brought  fortunes  to 
many  and  a  livelihood  to  thousands  of  others  it  has  not 
been  a  blessing  to  all  the  men  engaged  in  it.  To  the 
poor  Indian  peon  or  slave  who  must  gather  rubber  against 
his  will  it  is  a  curse.  Likewise  many  a  man  has  gone 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      263 

into  the  great  forests  to  buy  rubber  and  make  a  fortune 
in  a  short  time,  and  has  died  in  the  wilderness  where 
fever  overtook  him.  It  is  a  business  full  of  danger  to  a 
white  man,  especially  to  a  man  of  bad  habits.  Those 
who  lead  clean  and  regular  lives  have  a  fair  chance  of 
outliving  its  dangers,  but  even  some  of  the  strongest  and 
the  best  fail  to  return  from  the  forest. 

The  rubber  industry  has  also  been  a  misfortune  in  those 
places  where  the  people  have  abandoned  every  other 
kind  of  regular  work  for  the  uncertain  business  of  mak- 
ing money  out  of  rubber.  Settlements  that  were  once 
thriving  have  now  fallen  into  decay.  Gathering  rubber 
was  easier  for  the  enterprising  man  than  hoeing  on  a 
plantation.  By  going  into  the  forest  with  a  band  of 
Indian  peons  enough  gum  could  be  secured  in  three 
months  to  give  him  an  idle  living  the  rest  of  the  year. 
Many  substances  formerly  shipped  from  Amazonia  are 
no  longer  produced.  Cacao,  cotton,  rice,  and  sugar  were  in 
many  places  produced  in  larger  quantities  before  the  craze 
for  rubber  began  and  men  drifted  off  into  the  rubber  dis- 
tricts; the  wilderness  again  claims  many  a  cleared  place 
once  subdued  at  great  labor. 

If  the  people  of  a  region  spend  all  their  time  in  produc- 
ing but  one  substance,  all  the  other  articles  they  use  must 
be  brought  in  from  other  places,  and  if  these  are  far  away 
the  cost  will  be  correspondingly  great.  Think  of  a  region 
where  rubber  is  the  chief  product  of  the  people  and  yet 
where  a  rubber  coat  manufactured  in  Europe  or  the 
United  States  is  so  expensive  a  luxury  that  but  few  people 
can  afford  it!  It  is  the  same  with  many  other  articles 
needed  here.  There  are  no  manufactures  in  Amazonia. 
All  the  cloth,  shoes,  tools,  sugar,  and  rice  are  brought  in 
to  the  »rubber  districts  from  foreign  countries  in  the 
northern  hemisphere  or  from  distant  parts  of  Peru, 


264     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

Bolivia,  and  Brazil.  All  of  them  are  therefore  very 
expensive,  though  it  must  be  remembered  that  on  account 
of  the  lack  of  manufacturing  facilities  such  as  coal, 
labor,  and  railroads,  they  would  be  still  more  expensive 
if  manufactured  under  present  conditions  in  Amazonia. 
Salt,  which  is  so  cheap  in  the  United  States  that  one 
may  often  buy  a  barrel  of  it  for  about  a  dollar,  sells  in 
parts  of  Amazonia  for  thirty  cents  a  pound,  or  thirty 
dollars  a  barrel.  It  is  gathered  on  the  vast  salars  of  cen- 
tral Bolivia,  taken  by  llama  caravan  to  Cochabamba,  and 
thence  by  mule  train  a  week's  difficult  journey  to  Santa 
Rosa  at  the  head  of  canoe  navigation  on  the  Rio 
Chapare.  Though  gathered  free  it  sells  at  Santa  Rosa  for 
fifteen  cents  a  pound,  for  it  is  carried  at  great  labor  and 
expense.  Not  the  original  cost  but  the  cost  of  carrying 
the  goods  causes  the  extremely  high  price.  From  Santa 
Rosa  it  is  shipped  in  canoes  and  batelaos  down  river  to 
Trinidad,  Villa  Bella,  Riberalta,  and  other  river  towns, 
where  it  sells  for  much  more  on  account  of  the  long  and 
expensive  river  journey. 

The  Madeira  cataracts  are  formed  where  the  river 
crosses  at  right  angles  a  number  of  low,  narrow  ridges  of 
rock,  harder  than  the  bands  of  rock  on  either  side.  At 
one  time  the  harder  rocks  gave  rise  to  mountains  but  by 
long-continued  erosion  these  have  been  reduced  to  mere 
ridges.  All  of  the  southern  tributaries  of  the  Amazon 
that  flow  northward  off  the  uplands  of  southern  Brazil 
(Plate  VIII)  and  eastern  Bolivia  have  similar  cataracts 
where  they  cross  the  edges  of  the  upland  or  its  outlying 
spurs  and  ridges.  The  Canuma,  the  Tocantins,  the  Tapa- 
jos,  and  the  Xingu  are  alike  in  this  respect.  These  barriers 
are  of  unusual  importance  since  in  a  forested  region  the 
rivers  are  the  highways  and  a  river  with  cataracts  is  even 
worse  than  a  deeply  gullied  road  blocked  by  fallen  trees. 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      265 


»r\t  i  wi-i   MAP  OF  THE  Aruya,  Santo  . 

CATARACTS  of  the  RIO  MADEIRA  Ma 

*nd  (he  adjoining  portions  of  the 

BENI  and  MAMORE 

Scale  of  Miles 


Most  of  the  trade  of  the  Amazon  Basin  centers  at 
Para,  a  city  of  one  hundred  thousand  people  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Amazon,  eighty  miles  from  the  ocean  (Figs.  134  and 
137).  The  city  occupies  a  position  of  importance  since  it 
is  in  touch  with  all  of  the  great  valley  behind  it.  In  the 
harbor  are  all  kinds  of  ____^__^_ 
craft  from  hundreds  of 
different  places.  Here 
is  an  English  cargo 
steamer  loaded  with 
rubber  from  Iquitos 
and  bound  for  Liver- 
pool. Yonder  lies  a 
great  steamship  from 
New  York  bringing  a 
load  of  northern  lum- 
ber, fish,  hardware, 
clothing,  salt,  and  oil 
for  the  people  of  Para 
and  for  the  rubber 
men  along  the  various 
rivers.  Some  butter 
and  fish  come  from 
Norway ;  rice,  flour, 
and  fish  come  from 


Joseph  &  Franz  Keller  in 
"Vom  Amazonas  und  Madeira: 


FIG.  136.  Map  of  falls  of  the  Madeira 


the  United  States,  and  sugar,  coffee,   and  manioc  from 
eastern  Brazil. 

Besides  the  big  steamers  that  cross  the  ocean  there  are 
at  Para  many  kinds  of  boats  from  the  different  tributaries 
of  the  Amazon.  Here  are  canoes  and  sailboats  full  of 
vegetables  and  fruit  for  the  thousands 'of  city  dwellers; 
launches  and  side-wheel  steamers  from  up  the  Amazon 
bringing  rubber  and  cacao;  and  covered  batelaos  from 
the  Para  estuary  and  the  Tocantins  (Fig.  138),  bringing 


266     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

down  the  tropical  woods  and  fruits  of  the  lower  part  of  that 
valley.    The  people  who  run  the  boats  are  of  many  kinds, 


FIG.  137.    Municipal  Theater,  Para,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon 

from  swarthy  Indians  and  black  negroes  to  sickly  looking 
whites.  It  is  as  if  the  whole  world  had  been  drawn  upon 
to  make  a  medley  of  voices  in  many  languages  and  a 
mixture  of  racial  types. 

Within  the  city  of  Para  are  many  curious  and  interesting 
articles  of  food  scattered  upon  the  floors  or  displayed  in 
the  shop  windows.  Bananas  are  piled  everywhere  and 
are  very  cheap.  There  is  also  the  nutritious  manioc  sold 
as  flour, — the  food  of  large  numbers  of  people.  We  are 
acquainted  with  it  in  another  form,  for  it  is  from  this 
substance  that  we  get  our  tapioca.  Quantities  of  black 
tobacco  may  be  seen  rolled  up  in  long  twists  as  big 
around  as  one's  arm.  A  common  food  is  the  turtle. 
Many  of  those  caught  for  the  market  are  several  feet 
across  and  a  foot  high.  They  have  their  breeding  places 


AMAZONIA:    LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      267 

along  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and  the  shore  (Fig.  139). 
The  eggs  are  about  as  large  as  ordinary  hens'  eggs  and  have 
thick,  leathery  skins  instead  of  shells.  Each  turtle  lays 
more  than  a  hundred,  and  many  thousands  are  often  found 
in  a  single  breeding  place.  The  people  not  only  relish  the 
turtle  itself  but  also  prize  the  eggs.  They  search  the 
shore  for  them,  dig  them  out  of  the  sand  bars  in  which 
they  are  buried,  and  make  turtle  oil  or  turtle  butter  out 
of  them. 

After  Para  we  shall  leave  the  Amazon  Basin.  In  spite 
of  the  heat,  the  disease,  and  the  dirty  natives  with  which 
the  traveler  has  constantly  to  deal,  Amazonia  has  many 
attractions.  It  is  a  land  of  mystery  in  spite  of  all  the 
boats  and  the  men  in  various  parts  of  it.  One  after 
another  the  early  explorers  were  tempted  into  this  great 
wilderness  to  explore  its  forests  and  to  penetrate  its 
mysteries.  Fable  placed  somewhere  in  its  gloomy 
depths  the  mystic  city  of  El  Dorado,  the  city  of  gold, 
surrounded  by  fairy  lakes  and  filled  with  gilded  palaces. 
As  men  traveled  along  its  great  water  courses  the  fabled 
city  of  gold  flitted  from  one  corner  of  the  wilderness 


FIG.  138.     Village  of  Tocantins,  Amazon  'Basin 


268     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

to  another  and  at  last  disappeared,  though  the  history 
of  the  search  for  it  will  long  be  of  absorbing  interest. 


FIG.  139.    Loading  turtles,  Amazon  Basin 

One  by  one  the  secrets  of  the  region  have  been  dis- 
covered. Humboldt  explored  parts  of  it  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  Herndon  and  Gibbon  of  the  United 
States  Navy  traversed  it  by  different  routes  in  1851  - 1852, 
and  Louis  Agassiz  studied  the  natural  history  of  the 
lower  Amazon  in  1865-1866.  Crevaux,  the  Stanley  of 
South  America,  penetrated  some  of  its  remotest  regions. 
Wallace,  the  great  naturalist,  unlocked  the  secrets  of  the 
Rio  Negro.  Keller  wrote  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the 
Madeira  basin  and  of  the  difficult  cataracts.  Colonel 
Church  (American)  and  Sir  Clements  Markham  (English- 
man) crossed  the  basin  and  gave  us  graphic  accounts  of 
the  great  rivers,  the  plants,  and  the  wild  Indian  tribes. 
In  later  years  launches  and  steamers  have  multiplied 
on  all  the  large  tributaries  as  well  as  on  the  main  river, 


AMAZONIA:   LAND  OF  FORESTS  AND  RIVERS      269 

and  the  number  of  people  who  have  visited  the  Amazon 
is  now  large.  It  no  longer  is  a  hazardous  undertaking 
merely  to  cross  the  basin  along  the  best  routes,  though 
to  live  and  to  work  in  it  for  years  still  involves  risk  of  sick- 
ness or  at  least  of  poor  health  brought  on  by  insect  pests, 
bad  food  and  water,  and  almost  constant  high  tempera- 
ture and  humidity. 

The  latest  expeditions  to  the  Amazon  country  have 
shown  how  little  we  yet  know  of  some  of  the  corners  of 
this  vast  wilderness.  The  anthropologist,  Farrabee,  has 
just  explored  the  northeastern  section — the  hinterland  of 
Guiana.  Colonel  Rondon  of  Brazil  has  traveled  through 
new  regions  in  the  northern  parts  of  Matto  Grosso  and 
Goyaz;  and  during  1912  Colonel  Roosevelt,  in  company 
with  Rondon,  entered  the  Amazon  Basin  from  the  head- 
waters of  the  Paraguay  by  a  new  route.  He  discovered 
the  course  of  a  river,  about  eight  hundred  miles  long — the 
so-called  "River  of  Doubt,"  since  named  by  the  Brazilian 
government  "Rio  Theodoro"  in  his  honor.  The  fasci- 
nating story  of  his  adventures  is  illustrated  by  striking 
photographs  of  forest  scenes,  Indian  hunters,  game,  and 
strange,  isolated  settlements  in  a  hitherto  unknown  part 
of  South  America. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES 

The  Great  Volcanoes.  As  its  name  indicates,  Ecuador 
is  the  land  of  the  equator;  it  also  has  the  distinction  of 
containing  more  volcanoes  for  its  size  than  any  other 
country  on  the  continent.  The  land  is  very  irregular 
owing  to  the  large  amount  of  volcanic  material  poured  out 
upon  the  surface  everywhere  and  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  volcanoes  themselves  are  placed.  Upon  the  central 
plateau  there  is  an  "avenue  of  volcanoes"  in  which  are 
still  active  craters  that  at  intervals  emit  mud  and  lava 
and  destroy  hundreds  of  people  who  dwell  in  the  valleys 
at  their  feet. 

There  have  been  also  destructive  earthquakes,  as  in 
1868,  when  whole  towns  and  villages  were  destroyed  and 
fifty  thousand  people  lost  their  lives.  If  these  mountains 
are  beautiful  they  are  also  dangerous,  and  one  cannot 
admire  them  without  remembering  the  terrible  effects  of 
their  wrath. 

Cotopaxi  is  one  of  this  great  group  of  volcanoes  and 
in  1880  was  climbed  for  the  first  time  by  Whymper,  who 
has  written  a  stirring  account  of  its  active  crater. 
"Cavernous  recesses  belched  forth  smoke,  the  sides  of 
the  cracks  and  chasms  no  more  than  halfway  down  shone 
with  ruddy  light,  and  so  it  continued  right  down  to  the 
bottom  .  .  .  [where]  was  a  ruddy  circular  spot  about 
one-tenth  of  the  diameter  of  the  crater,  the  pipe  of  the 
volcano,  its  channel  of  communication  with  lower  regions, 
filled  with  incandescent  if  not  molten  lava,  glowing 
and  burning,  with  flames  traveling  to  and  fro  over  its 
surface,  and  scintillations  scattering  as  from  a  wood  fire, 

270 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES 


271 


lighted  by  tongues  of  flame  which  issued  from  the  cracks 
in  the  surrounding  slopes." 

Among  these  giant  volcanoes  there  is  none  other  that 
lifts  its  head  so  high  as  lofty  Chimborazo  (Fig.  140).  It 
reaches  more  than  twenty  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  and 
on  clear  days  may  be  seen  from  Guayaquil,  a  city  on  the 
hot,  steaming  low  lands  of  the  western  coast.  To  travel 
from  Guayaquil  to  the  top  of  Chimborazo  is  to  pass  through 
as  many  different  climates  as  one  would  experience  in 
going  from  Guayaquil  to  the  north  pole,  for  the  crater  of 
Chimborazo  is  ice-capped  in  spite  of  the  eternal  fires  that 
smoulder  in  the  heart  of  the  volcano.  Within  the  past 
few  hundred  years  Chimborazo  has  broken  out  many  times. 

The  Unknown  Borders.  Ecuador  is  not  only  one  of 
the  smallest  republics  of  South  America;  it  is  also  the 
only  country  whose  size  varies  so  much  from  year  to  year, 
according  to  the  claims  of  its  neighbors,  Colombia  and 
Peru,  that  in  the  end  it  may  be  twice  as  large  or  only 
half  as  large  as  its  people  think  it  is  (Plate  II).  As  a 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 


FIG.  140.     Snow-capped  mountain,  Chimborazo,  Ecuador,  within 
sight  of  a  hot  lowland 


272     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

matter  of  fact  its  exact  size  is  of  small  consequence,  for 
the  land  it  holds  in  dispute  with  these  neighbors  is  located 
east  of  the  mountains  and  within  the  hot,  forest-clad  basin 
of  the  Amazon,  and  has  little  present  value.  Some  rubber 
is  gathered  on  the  eastern  lowlands,  but  the  amount  is 
not  large  enough  to  cause  Ecuador  to  take  a  very  firm 
stand  against  her  neighbors  in  holding  the  land.  Like 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  141.     Old  Spanish  church,  La  Compania,  Quito,  Ecuador 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES       273 

some  other  South  American  countries,  Ecuador  once  m 
a  while  amuses  the  world  by  publishing  a  map  of  the 
country  with  boundaries  that  take  in  as  generous  slices  of 
neighboring  states  as  the  humor  of  the  map  maker  may 
lead  him  to  include.  If  one  compare  an  official  map  of 
Ecuador  with  a  map  of  Ecuador  published  in  Peru  or 
Colombia,  an  astonishing  difference  will  be  seen. 

The  White  People  of  Ecuador.  Although  Ecuador  is 
a  separate  republic  and  has  a  government  of  its  own  it  is 
almost  amusing  to  learn  how  small  a  number  of  white 
people  actually  live  in  it  and  do  its  business.  There  are 
only  as  many  white  people  in  Ecuador  as  live  in  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  that  is,  about  twro  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand.  Among  even  this  number  there  are  some 
who  have  a  small  amount  of  negro  or  Indian  blood. 
Including  Indians,  negroes,  and  half-breeds  there  are  in 
all  Ecuador  to-day  perhaps  a  million  and  a  half,  about 
twice  as  many  as  live  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis  (Plate  XII). 

The  Indians  of  Ecuador.  The  Indians  of  Ecuador 
belong  to  two  distinct  groups.  Upon  the  western  plateau 
and  in  the  higher  valleys  are  the  salt-eating  and  semi- 
Christian  Indians  who  live  chiefly  by  agriculture,  are 
peaceful  and  industrious,  and  have  a  settled  mode  of 
life.  Then  there  are  the  really  wild  tribes  that  eat  no 
salt,  have  no  religion  or  a  very  simple  one,  live  in  a 
savage  way,  recognize  no  man's  authority,  and  are 
treacherous  and  warlike.  These  live  upon  the  plains 
of  the  eastern  part  of  the  country,  the  forested  western 
edge  of  the  great  Amazon  Basin.  As  the  forest-dwelling 
Indians  form  so  large  a  part  of  the  total  population  of 
Ecuador  it  will  be  worth  our  while  to  look  at  their  cus- 
toms in  some  detail.  Their  wild  life  makes  them  in 
some  respects  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  native  pao^e 
of  Ecuador. 
18 


274     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

The  flat,  forested  country  of  the  Napo  valley  contains 
many  Indian  tribes.  This  river,  one  of  the  tributaries 
of  the  upper  Amazon  in  Ecuador,  flows  through  a  flat 
country  and  winds  back  and  forth  in  large  and  regular 
curves.  Upon  the  outside  of  the  river  bends  the  banks 
are  being  cut  away,  while  the  inside  of  each  bend  is 
marked  by  a  flat  sand  bar  containing  driftwood,  a  splendid 
camp  site  for  Indian  hunters,  white  traders,  and  travelers 
alike.  For  miles  the  country  is  a  network  of  water  courses, 
and  each  side  of  the  river  is  bordered  by  a  countless 
number  of  lakes  opening  into  the  main  stream  by  sluggish 
channels. 

The  Napo  country  is  in  some  places  particularly  wild 
and  desolate  and  full  of  animals.  The  tall  cane  bordering 
the  banks  of  the  river  is  the  hiding  place  of  pumas,  jaguars, 
and  wild  hogs  that  come  down  to  the  river  at  night  to 
drink.  On  the  lower  Napo  turtles  and  turtle  eggs  are  the 
main  articles  of  food,  as  monkeys  are  in  the  upper  Napo. 

The  Wild  Tribes  of  the  Napo  Valley.  The  Zaparo 
tribe  of  the  Napo  valley  is  one  of  the  wild  tribes,  whose 
customs,  clothing,  and  means  of  securing  food  are  of 
special  interest.  These  Indians  lead  a  semi-nomadic 
life,  sometimes  collecting  at  their  settlements  and  again 
following  the  trails  of  the  wild  animals  that  move  now 
in  this  direction,  now  in  that,  according  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  food  ripens.  When  they  reach  a  place  where 
the  hunting  is  good  they  build  beautiful  sheds,  open  on 
all  sides,  with  several  palm-fiber  hammocks  slung  crosswise 
within.  These  serve  them  only  a  few  months  at  the  long- 
est, for  the  game  soon  becomes  scarce  as  the  hunters  scour 
the  forest  roundabout,  and  abandoning  the  old  camp  site 
they  move  to  a  new  one. 

The  Zaparo  Indians  have  no  industry  whatever  except 
the  making  of  the  hammocks  in  which  they  sleep  and  the 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES       275 

weaving  of  the  fishing  nets  so  necessary  for  their  food 
supply.  The  only  covering,  worn  by  men  and  women 
alike,  is  a  long  bark  shirt,  made  in  a  single  piece,  and 
called  a  llanchama.  To  make  it,  a  moderate-sized  tree 
of  the  right  kind  is  cut  down  and  the  bark  pounded  with 
clubs  until  it  is  broken  off  and  the  interior  fibrous  bark 
loosened  from  the  wood.  This  inner  bark  is  thin  and 
forms  a  good  natural  cloth.  It  is  removed  from  the  trunk 
of  the  tree  without  being  cut  so  that  it  is  in  a  single  piece 
and  need  be  only  partially  closed  at  one  end,  and  have 
two  armholes  cut  into  it.  Before  the  garment  is  worn 
it  is  dried  in  the  sun  and  ornamented  by  circles  and 
other  designs  in  red,  without  which  it  would  not  be 
thought  complete. 

The  Deadly  Blow-gun.  Some  of  the  Indians  of  the 
Napo  valley  make  the  blow-gun,  an  instrument  used  by 
only  a  few  tribes  in  the  world  and  dreaded  by  all  their 
enemies.  It  is  as  formidable  to  the  white  man  with  his 
modern  high-power  rifle  as  to  the  ignorant  savage,  for 
it  is  both  deadly  and  silent.  Not  a  sound  may  be  heard 
to  indicate  whence  come  the  deadly  arrows  so  skillfully 
blown  by  some  Indian  hidden  in  dense  brush  or  bamboo. 
The  gun,  about  eight  feet  long,  is  made  of  straight  bamboo. 
A  joint  of  bamboo  serves  as  a  quiver;  the  arrow  is  a 
slender  stick  almost  a  foot  long,  with  a  very  sharp  point 
dipped  in  poison  that  soon  paralyzes  its  victim.  The 
end  of  the  arrow  next  the  mouth  is  wrapped  with  light, 
delicate  wild  cotton.  In  shooting  the  blow-gun  the 
mouthpiece  is  held  in  both  hands.  It  is  blown  with 
astonishing  skill  and  has  great  penetration  at  short 
distances. 

An  American  Sewing  Machine  in  an  Indian  Hut.  It  is 
a  strange  and  curious  sight  to  see  an  almost  nude  Indian 
woman  using  a  sewing  machine  in  making  calico  dresses 


276     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

for  her  children;  yet  it  is  a  sight  frequently  seen  in  the 
lower  parts  of  the  Napo  valley.  Traders  have  brought 
in  many  of  the  white  man's  goods,  but  none  that  seems 
more  strangely  out  of  place  than  a  sewing  machine  in  the 
hut  of  a  forest  Indian.  These  machines  are  used  even  by 
those  Indians  who  eat  with  their  fingers  and  who  squat 
upon  the  earthen  floors  of  their  dirty  huts.  The  women 
take  the  greatest  pride  in  one,  usually  those  of  a  whole 
village  purchasing  a  machine  in  common.  The  old  Napo 
costume  of  woven  grass  or  bark  is  in  some  places  fast 
going  out  of  fashion,  ordinary  dresses  of  cotton  and  linen 
being  worn  in  their  place. 

The  Bleak  Paramos  of  the  Highland.  What  a  contrast 
to  the  life  of  the  plains  of  eastern  Ecuador  is  the  life 
on  the  mountains  and  plateaus  of  western  Ecuador !  Here 
are  the  lofty  paramos,  or  high,  bleak,  and  almost  deserted 
plateaus  which  extend  northward  into  Colombia.  The 
heavy  mists,  the  clouds,  and  the  rains  of  the  paramos  are 
so  penetrating  that  they  cause  great  discomfort,  and  it 
sometimes  happens  that  both  whites  and  Indians  when 
overtaken  by  bad  weather  become  numbed  and  perish. 
Every  one  attempts  to  get  across  a  paramo  as  quickly 
as  possible.  There  is  not  even  a  shrub,  much  less  a 
human  habitation,  to  afford  food  or  protection.  Every- 
where one  feels  a  sense  of  great  loneliness.  With  the 
exception  of  the  half -wild  cattle  one  might  travel  for 
weeks  without  seeing  any  large  animal.  The  paramo 
stag,  the  mountain  lion,  the  bear,  the  fox,  and  the  woolly- 
haired  tapir  live  there  in  the  scantiest  numbers.  A  few 
lazy  vultures  and  smaller  birds  add  to  the  desolation. 
"There  is  a  note  of  sadness  running  through  the  whole 
of  nature  on  the  paramo,  a  note  so  strong  that  even  the 
wild  inhabitants  seem  to  have  caught  it.  It  is  a  desolate 
and  melancholy  land."  (Keane.) 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OP  VOLCANOES 


277 


The  Wet  Lowlands  of  the  Coast.  Upon  the  western 
edge  of  Ecuador  one  finds  again  the  rank  vegetation  that 
is  the  mark  of  tropical  heat  and  seasonal  wetness  (Plate 
XI).  It  is  this  aspect  of  the  country  that  greets  the 
traveler  who  enters  the  Gulf  of  Guayaquil  and  sails  up 
the  broad  Guayas  River.  The  banks  of  the  stream  are 
crowded  with  trees  and  shrubs,  and  everywhere  are  signs  of 


Copyright  by  Underwood  £  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  142.     Gliding  up  into  the  heart  of  the  country;  natives  poling 
boat  up  Babahoyo  River,  Ecuador 


278     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

regular  rains.  These  rains  come  during  the  southern 
summer,  that  is,  during  December,  January,  and  February. 
After  the  first  rains  the  appearance  of  the  country  is  most 
refreshing.  Animal  life  is  abundant,  the  flat  savannas 
bordering  the  stream  are  covered  with  a  bright  green 
carpet  of  grass  and  shrubs,  and  the  bushes  have  a  rich 
covering  of  leaves  and  flowers.  During  the  dry  season  — 
July  and  August  — the  plants  lose  their  leaves  in  large 
part,  and  rest  until  the  summer  rains  come  again. 

The  plains  bordering  the  largest  and  the  only  navigable 
stream  of  Ecuador  are  well  cultivated  and  pleasing  to 
the  eye.  "Plantation  after  plantation,  hacienda  after 
hacienda,  extend  along  the  main  stream;  every  house  is 
surrounded  by  the  magnificent  fruit  trees,  bananas,  and 
palms.  Now  we  wander  for  hours  through  the  dark 
green  cacao  forests,  now  through  low  coffee  bushes,  again 
over  bright  green  fields  of  rice  and  sugar  cane,  or  along 
the  steep  slopes  of  darker  tobacco  fields;  suddenly  we 
find  ourselves  for  a  short  stretch  in  dense  forest,  where  the 
monkeys  are  chattering;  then  we  come  upon  thousands 
of  cattje  and  horses  pasturing  on  the  open  savannas. 
These  savannas,  with  their  great  isolated  trees  or  clumps 
of  bamboo  grasses,  twenty  feet  high,  present  a  wonderful 
sight."  (Wolf.) 

The  Panama  Hat.  It  is  from  the  moist  lowlands  of 
western  Ecuador  that  the  chief  exports  of  the  country 
are  derived.  This  is  the  land  of  palms  and  fruits,  of 
grazing  cattle,  and  plantations  of  cacao,  sugar,  and  rice. 
It  is  a  land  where  there  is  very  little  manufacturing. 
Almost  all  that  the  country  produces  for  export  is  derived 
from  the  soil.  The  only  manufactured  article  is  the 
Panama  hat,  and  because  it  is  so  famous  we  shall  wish  to 
see  how  it  is  woven.  It  may  be  interesting  to  know  in 
passing  that  the  name  "  Panama  hat"  is  rather  misleading, 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES      279 

for  it  is  not  made  in  Panama  at  all  but  in  Ecuador, 
Colombia,  and  northern  Peru.  Some  years  ago,  and  al- 
most the  same  is  still  true,  these  hats  were  shipped  chiefly 
by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  it  was  there  that 
for  a  long  time  they  were  bought  and  sold.  But  to-day 
it  is  chiefly  at  Guayaquil  as  well  as  at  Payta,  in  northern 
Peru,  that  they  are  brought  for  sale.  In  Ecuador  Panama 
hats  are  called  Jipijapa  after  the  town  and  province  in 
that  country  where  it  is  said  they  were  first  made. 

The  plant  that  supplies  the  straw  out  of  which  Panama 
hats  are  made  is  called  planta  de  Toquilla.  It  grows  wild 
in  the  low,  damp  forests  and  is  cultivated  on  some  of  the 
plantations.  The  "straw"  is  obtained  from  the  young 
white  leaves  that  are  just  beginning  to  open.  The  leaves 
have  parallel  veins  and  it  is  along  these  that  they  are 
split  into  shreds  resembling  straw.  They  are  then  boiled 
and  dried  in  the  sun.  For  shipment  from  place  to  place 
the  straw  is  packed  in  bales  weighing  from  sixty-five  to 
ninety  pounds  each,  which  sell  for  thirty-five  or  forty 
cents  a  pound. 

Many  of  the  hats  made  in  Ecuador  are  of  course  very 
plain  and  are  worn  by  the  poorer  natives.  Those  shipped 
out  of  the  country  for  sale  in  the  United  States,  Europe, 
and  southern  South  America  are  as  a  rule  better  made. 
The  highest  grades  are  of  fine  fiber  and  are  braided  with 
extreme  care.  Some  of  them  bring  the  maker  from  one 
hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  apiece. 
This  seems  like  a  high  price,  but  we  must  remember  that 
the  straw  is  fine  and  the  weaver  must  work  so  slowly 
that  from  five  to  six  months  may  be  required  to  weave  a 
single  hat.  Sometimes  cigar  cases  or  watch  fobs  are  made 
on  commission  for  a  particular  price  agreed  on  before  the 
work  is  begun.  One  such  article  smaller  than  one's  hand 
is  known  to  have  cost  five  hundred  dollars,  and  to  have 


280     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

required  several  years'  time  to  weave.  Its  texture 
resembled  that  of  fine  cloth.  In  some  provinces  the 
making  of  hats  is  an  important  industry  in  which  a  large 
number  of  people  are  engaged;  in  Guayas  five  hundred  to 
a  thousand  dozen  are  manufactured  every  month.  Nearly 
a  million  and  a  quarter  dollars'  worth  are  sent  to  the 
United  States  every  year. 

Cacao  in  Ecuador.  More  than  twenty  countries  of  the 
world  are  engaged  in  the  production  of  cacao.  Of  these 
countries  the  most  important  are  Brazil,  the  island  of  Sao 
Thome,  and  Ecuador  (Figs.  5  and  151).  In  1904  Ecua- 
dor produced  five  thousand  tons  more  than  its  nearest 
competitor,  Brazil,  but  more  recently  Brazil  occupies  first 
place.  Whole  plantations  are  devoted  to  the  growth 
of  cacao  so  widely  used  as  a  drink  by  the  people  of  tem- 
perate lands.  Plantations  are  bought  and  sold  at  the  rate 
of  fifty  to  seventy-five  cents  per  tree.  Each  tree  produces 
about  one  pound,  a  pound  selling  for  fifteen  or  twenty 
cents  in  Ecuador.  Cacao  is  unlike  tea  and  coffee  in  that 
it  can  be  grown  in  only  a  very  narrow  zone  between  six 
hundred  fifty  and  twenty-six  hundred  feet  above  the  sea, 
and  between  twenty  degrees  north  and  twenty  degrees 
south  of  the  equator. 

Ivory  from  a  Plant  instead  of  an  Elephant.  If  one 
were  to  visit  a  button  factory  in  the  United  States  he 
would  find  there  a  lot  of  curiously  shaped  nuts  as  hard 
as  bone  and  with  a  brown  surface,  but  without  a  shell. 
Break  open  one  of  the  nuts  and  there  is  found  within  only 
an  intensely  hard  white  interior,  out  of  which  buttons 
may  be  made.  The  nut  is  called  "vegetable  ivory"  and 
it  is  obtained  from  a  limited  number  of  countries,  among 
them  tropical  Ecuador,  where  the  gathering  and  sale  of 
it  takes  the  time  of  many  men.  It  is  one  of  the  important 
industries  of  the  country. 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES 


281 


Without  vegetable  ivory,  buttons  would  be  either  much 
more  expensive  or  inferior  in  quality,  for  they  would  have 
to  be  made  of  steel,  of  the  bone  and  horns  of  cattle  slaugh- 
tered for  the  meat  market,  as  indeed  some  buttons  are  now 
made ;  or  they  would  have  to  be  made  of  wood,  and  would 
not  wear  well ;  or  of  ivory,  which  would  be  very  expensive, 
for  it  is  obtained  from  the  tusks  of  elephants  that  live 


..^— — ^^— ^— ^— — — ^^^— 

Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.    143.     Up-country  hospitality  among  the  natives;  dinner  in 
preparation,  Riobamba,  on  the  plateau  of  Ecuador 


282     SOUTH   AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

in   tropical   Africa.     There   are   many  other   substances 
beside  these  out  of  which  buttons  are  made,  though  almost 


Copyright,  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  144.     A  country  housewife  grinding  oats  for  bread  in  a  home 
on  Ambato-Riobamba  road 

all  of  them  are  open  to  one  objection  or  another.  But 
here  in  the  land  of  the  equator  there  grows  a  plant  yielding 
a  nut  out  of  which  excellent  buttons  may  be  made  cheaply. 
About  three  million  five  hundred  thousand  pounds  of 
vegetable  ivory  are  sent  out  of  Ecuador  every  year  at  a 
cost  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  In  Ecua- 
dor the  vegetable  ivory  nuts  are  also  shipped  in  some  num- 
bers to  Quito,  the  capital  city,  where  they  are  skillfully 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES 


283 


carved  into  little  figures  that  are  then  painted  in  bright 
colors  and  sold  to  the  people  of  the  country  roundabout. 
The  Plateau  of  Ecuador.  Between  the  flat,  hot,  moist 
plains  of  eastern  Ecuador  and  the  forested  western  fringe 
in  which  most  of  Ecuador's  plantations  are  found,  is  the 
mountainous  part  of  the  country.  Here,  too,  we  find  the 
high  plateaus  and  valleys  in  which  a  great  part  of  the  na- 
tives and  almost  all  the  whites  live  (Figs.  143  and  144). 
No  white  man  stays  on  the  coast  except  to  transact 
business,  to  wait  for  the  next  boat,  or  to  see  the  country. 
A  few  live  on  the  lowlands  all  the  time,  but  rather  from 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  W.  Y. 

FIG.  145.     Quito,  Ecuador,  the  city  of  the  equator,  9,350  feet  above 
the  sea,  among  the  Andean  volcanoes 


284     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

necessity  than  from  choice,  because  all  of  the  lowlands  and 
the  lowland  cities  are  extremely  hot  and  unhealthful,  and 
infested  by  flies  and  mosquitoes.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  climate  of  the  plateau  is  cool  and  healthful  the  year 
round;  there  are  farms  on  which  corn  and  cattle  are 
produced,  whose  owners  enjoy  a  degree  of  comfort  and 
health  quite  in  contrast  to  the  discomfort  endured  by  the 
fever-ridden  and  insect-tormented  people  of  the  plains. 
It  is  here  that  we  realize  the  many  kinds  of  climate  that 
even  such  a  small  tropical  country  as  Ecuador  offers  to 
its  people.  Upon  either  side  are  hot  plains;  between 
these  are  high  plateaus  and  valleys  with  every  kind  of 
climate  and  vegetation;  higher  still  are  lofty  paramos, 
cold,  bleak,  wet,  and  almost  lifeless;  and  crowning  the 
whole  are  superb  volcanoes,  whose  lofty  peaks  rise  into  a 
land  of  eternal  winter  (Fig.  140  and  Plates  VIII  and  XI.) 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 


FIG.  146      Street  in  Quito,  Ecuador 


ECUADOR:    LAND  OF  VOLCANOES  285 

The  Cities  of  the  Cool  Plateau.  Upon  the  ctfol  "and 
pleasant  plateau  are  the  chief  cities  of  Ecuador.  Here 
is  Quito  (Figs.  145  and  146),  the  capital  and  largest  city; 
here  also  are  the  large  towns,  Latacunga,  Riobamba,  and 
Ambato,  each  with  about  ten  thousand  people,  and  Cuenca 
in  the  upper  Paute  basin  with  twenty-five  thousand. 
Quito  is  said  to  have  between  thirty  and  eighty  thousand 
people,  these  wide  extremes  showing  how  carelessly  the 
people  are  numbered,  for  no  one  can  say  just  how  large 
any  one  of  these  towns  actually  is.  Quito  stands  more 
than  nine  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  under  the  shadow 
of  the  volcano  Pichincha,  and  is  laid  out  in  the  form  of  a 
square.  Its  churches  (Fig  141),  convents,  and  cathedral 
have  a  fine  appearance,  but  are  in  painful  contrast  to  the 
mean,  squalid  native  houses  built  almost  in  their  shadow. 
Here  are  Panama  hats  from  the  valleys  on  the  eastern 
slopes  of  the  mountains,  oil  paintings  sold  in  the  country 
districts  near  by,  the  skins  of  birds  from  the  Napo  valley, 
grain,  cattle,  and  hides  from  the  plateau,  and  a  little 
silver  and  gold  from  the  river  sands. 

In  the  quaint  old  city  of  Quito  one  may  now  see  the 
most  striking  contrasts  of  old  and  new.  The  native 
Indians  still  follow  the  old  ways  of  life:  build  their 
mud-walled  houses  on  the  old  designs,  use  the  llama  to 
some  extent,  till  their  farms  with  the  most  simple  wooden 
plows  (Fig.  150),  and  live  in  almost  every  way  like  the 
Indians  of  four  hundred  years  ago. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  Quito,  although  it  is  the  capital 
and  largest  city  of  the  entire  country,  was  connected  with 
the  outside  world  only  by  stagecoach  and  mule  caravan. 
All  of  its  imports  had  to  be  brought  in  over  trails  and 
coach  roads  in  such  bad  condition  that  they  were  closed 
for  several  months  of  the  year  in  times  of  exceptionally 
heavy  rains.  Now  there  is  a  railway  to  Guayaquil,  the 


286     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

chief  seaport  (Figs.  147, 148,  and  149),  and  the  traveler  may 
reach  the  plateau  town  by  steamer  and  rail   in  about 


Courtesy  of  the  Pan-American  Union 

FIG.    147.     Street  in   Guayaquil,    Ecuador.     Guayaquil  is  one  of 
the  most  unhealthful  cities  in  the  world 

twelve  days  from  New  York.  The  railway  was  built  at 
heavy  expense  and  at  great  risk.  In  some  cases  the 
mountain  sides  had  to  be  faced  with  retaining  walls  of 
brick  and  stone,  steel  bridges  were  built  across  the  moun- 
tain torrents  that  course  through  the  bottoms  of  steep- 
sided  ravines,  and  switchbacks  were  built  that  make  the 
ascent  of  steep  slopes  possible.  The  ties  are  of  California 
redwood.  All  timber  except  that  used  for  temporary  pur- 
poses had  to  be  brought  from  California  and  Oregon. 

Sooner  or  later  the  fine  water  power  that  the  mountain 
torrents  would  supply  will  be  put  to  use  and  the  trains 
operated  by  electric  power.  The  lower  part  of  the  rail- 
way had  to  be  built  by  negroes  brought  in  from  tropical 
Jamaica  because  the  natives  from  the  plateau  sicken  and 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES 


287 


die  in  the  unhealthful  lowlands  and  could  not  be  induced 
to  work  on  the  line  until  it  reached  an  elevation  of  six 
thousand  feet.  The  railway  means  a  great  deal  not  only 
to  the  people  of  the  interior  _  plateau  but  also  to  the  valley 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  148.     Volunteer  fucmen  ready  to  run  with  the  engine,  Cathedral 
Square,  Guayaquil,  Ecuador 


288     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 


people  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes,  where  man 
has  long  been  shut  away,  far  from  the  sea  and  the  great 


FIG.    149.     Guayaquil,    Ecuador.     Part   of  Malecon,  showing   the 
river  front 

currents  of  the  world's  trade.  The  locomotives  on  the 
line  now  use  wood  obtained  from  near  the  coast  and 
coal  imported  from  Australia  and  England'. 

The  Only  Seaport  of  Ecuador.  The  seaport  of  Ecuador, 
to  which  all  the  goods  for  the  interior  of  the  country  must 
be  brought,  is  Guayaquil  on  the  banks  of  the  Guayas 
River.  It  has  an  evil  name,  not  only  because  of  the  heat 
and  flies  and  swarms  of  ferocious  mosquitoes,  but  also 
because  of  the  prevalence  of  disease  of  almost  every  kind. 
It  is  perhaps  the  most  unhealthful  city  in  the  world.  It 
lacks  a  decent  sewer  system,  its  streets  are  filthy,  its  air 
stagnant,  and  the  heat  of  the  sun  intense.  A  large  firm 
doing  a  great  business  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America 
tried  for  years  to  maintain  a  branch  house  at  Guayaquil, 
but  agent  after  agent  died  of  some  one  of  the  diseases 
which  have  made  the  city  notorious  until,  at  last,  the  firm 
gave  up  in  despair.  Yellow  fever  is  almost  always  pres- 
ent, varied  once  in  a  while  by  outbreaks  of  typhoid, 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES 


289 


bubonic  plague,  smallpox,  and  malaria.  From  time  to 
time  the  government  has  tried  to  do  something,  but  after 
a  feeble  effort  or  two  allowed  the  old  condition  of  things 
to  return.  At  last  they  have  organized  a  commission 
and  have  put  at  the  head  of  it  Colonel  Gorgas,  who  has 
made  a  great  reputation  in  both  Cuba  and  Panama  for 
cleaning  up  tropical  cities  and  stamping  out  disease. 
If  the  commission  is  allowed  to  carry  out  its  plans  Guaya- 
quil may  become  a  clean  port  like  Rio  de  Janeiro  and 
Havana  (Plate  II). 

In  spite  of  the  bad  climate  and  evil  name  of  Guayaquil 
a  great  deal  of  business  is  done  there,  for  it  is  the  main 
seaport  of  the  country.  Although  the  river  is  shallow 
and  full  of  changing  sand  bars,  ocean  steamers  come  well 
up  the  river,  where  they  are  met  by  barges,  steam  launches, 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  150.     Plowing  with  a  crooked  stick — a  custom  still  found  in 
both  Ecuador  and  Peru 

19 


2QO     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

dugout  canoes,  and  rafts  that  move  between  vessel  and 
port  with  the  tides.     Here,   too,   are  gathered  all  the 


Courtesy  of  tlio  Pan-AiiU'rii-an  Union 

FIG.   151.     Loading    cacao    at    Guayaquil,    Ecuador.    A    typical 
harbor  scene 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES       291 

products  of  Ecuador,  and  one  may  learn  much  of  the 
country  by  seeing  what  the  great  ocean  steamers  leave 
or  take  from  it.  Here  are  the  cacao,  the  hides,  and 
the  cattle  of  the  plains  through  which  the  Guayas  River 
runs  and  in  whose  current  the  boats  are  swinging;  there 
are  the  ivory  nuts,  the  Panama  hats,  the  sugar  cane,  and 
the  rice  grown  on  the  plantations  (Fig.  152)  that  line  the 
river  for  miles.  The  houses  of  Guayaquil  are  made  in 
large  part  of  bamboo  and  plaster,  for  the  sake  of  coolness 
and  on  account  of  the  earthquakes  for  which  the  town  is 
too  well  known.  Large  buildings  would  endanger  the 
lives  of  the  people,  but  these  light  structures  rarely  fall. 
Even  when  they  do  fall  the  danger  to  life  is  slight. 

A  City  on  a  River.  Another  interesting  town  in  Ecuador 
is  Bodegas,  many  of  whose  houses  are  built  far  out  over 
the  water  on  piles  driven  into  the  mud  of  the  river  bottom. 
The  reasons  for  this  curious  condition  are  the  heavy  rains 
that  occur  here  and  the  fact  that  during  the  rainy  season 
the  lowlands  near  the  river  are  flooded  so  high  that  the 
people  would  be  driven  out  if  they  built  their  houses  on 
the  ground.  When  the  rains  come  and  the  water  rises 
the  people  may  go  into  the  second  stories  of  their 
houses  and  live  there  until  the  floods  subside.  The  street 
crossings  are  bridged  by  logs  and  the  people  sometimes 
step  from  one  block  to  another  in  going  from  store  to 
store,  or  even  use  a  canoe  as  in  the  city  of  Venice, 
where  canals  take  the  place  of  streets  and  every  one 
travels  by  boat. 

Some  of  the  smaller  houses  of  Bodegas  consist  of  one 
room  only  and  are  made  of  poles  covered  with  palm  leaves. 
To  enter,  one  must  go  up  a  ladder  instead  of  a  flight  of 
steps;  the  ladder  can  be  drawn  up  and  let  down  as  the 
water  rises  and  falls,  and  is  not  swept  away  as  steps  would 
be.  The  floors  are  of  bamboo  canes  with  cracks  between 


,292     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  separate  canes — cracks  so  wide  that  one  may  look 
through  to  the  water  beneath.  This  is  very  handy  for 
the  women,  because  the  dirt  falls  through  the  cracks  to 
the  river  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  sweep  the  rooms. 

The  people  of  Bodegas,  like  those  in  other  lowland 
towns,  use  charcoal  for  fuel,  burning  it  in  braziers,  a 
little  at  a  time  as  they  require  it  for  cooking.  The  rains 
make  the  poor  wood  even  poorer,  and  to  have  a  good  fire 
good  fuel  must  be  used.  Charcoal  burning,  as  the 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.  152.     Harvesting  sugar  cane  on  a  great  plantation,  a  typical 
scene  in  river  valleys  of  Peru  and  Ecuador 


ECUADOR:  LAND  OF  VOLCANOES       293 

process  of  making  charcoal  is  called,  is  a  regular  industry 
all  the  way  along  the  west  coast  from  Mexico  past  Central 
America  and  Panama  to  Ecuador.  Farther  south  there 
are  few  rains  and  the  people  use  the  dry,  resinous,  quick- 
burning,  and  heat-giving  desert  shrubs  for  fuel.  Charcoal 
sometimes  sells  for  as  much  as  a  dollar  a  hundredweight 
and  is  at  least  one  article  that  the  native  must  buy  arid 
hence  for  which  he  must  work  at  some  paid  task.  The 
people  of  Bodegas  live  chiefly  upon  bananas,  sweet 
potatoes,  and  yuca,  as  well  as  upon  the  sugar  cane,  which 
they  eat  raw.  They  also  eat  rice  and  dried  beef  obtained 
from  the  plantations  and  the  ranches  of  the  Guayas 
valley. 


CHAPTER  XV 

LOWLAND   AND   HIGHLAND   PEOPLES   OF 
COLOMBIA 

The  Caribbean  and  its  Strange  Shores.  Colombia  is 
nearer  our  shores  than  any  other  South  American  country 
except  Venezuela,  and  yet  to  most  people  it  is  as  little 
known  as  Tierra  del  Fuego  or  Spitzbergen.  From  New 
York  one  may  reach  the  coast  of  Colombia  in  a  week. 
Starting  in  midwinter,  the  cold  intense  and  the  port  of 
New  York  enshrouded  with  snow  and  ice,  one  reaches  the 
Gulf  Stream  in  three  days  and  enters  a  region  of  summer 
where  balmy  winds  whisper  of  strange  southern  lands. 
A  few  hundred  miles  farther  is  the  warm  Caribbean, 
where  one  sees  for  the  first  time  some  of  the  enchantments 
of  the  tropics.  The  sun  sinks  into  a  golden  west  barred 
by  magically  colored  clouds,  strange  stars  shine  from  an 
unfamiliar  sky,  and  the  brilliant  moonlight  gives  a 
romantic  touch  to  a  wonderful  sea.  It  is  as  if  one  were 
living  again  the  stories  of  the  Arabian  Nights — as  if  the 
world  were  unreal.  The  intense  and  indescribable  blue  of 
the  Caribbean  is  the  wonder  of  all  people  who  travel 
through  it.  By  night  the  sea  at  times  glows  with  phos- 
phorescence; in  the  daytime  it  is  brilliantly  lighted  by  an 
almost  vertical  sun.  Strange  plants  float  upon  its  waters, 
strange  fish  flash  through  it,  strange  faces  look  from  the 
shores  of  its  many  islands. 

A  week's  journey  through  the  purple  and  gold  of  the 
tropics,  and  we  are  in  Colombia.  In  but  a  few  days  we 
have  been  taken  from  the  land  of  the  north  to  the  land 
of  the  south,  from  snow  and  ice  to  heat  and  luxuriant 
vegetation.  The  welcome  shore  is  bordered  by  waving 
palms;  tropical  fruits  hang  from  hundreds  of  trees; 

294 


PEOPLES  OF   COLOMBIA 


295 


barefooted  men  and  women  do  the  tasks  of  the  port. 
The  southland  is  before  us  with  all  its  mystery  and  its 
beauty,  its  color  and  abundant  life,  its  new  peoples  and 
its  tropical  products  (Figs.  153  and  154). 

A  Large  Country  and  a  Small  Map.  The  republic  of 
Colombia  is  so  small  on  most  maps  (Plate  II)  that  its 
really  great  size  is  often  not  appreciated  until  the  traveler 
actually  reaches  it  and  begins  a  journey  across  it.  Then  it 
is  with  no  little  astonishment  that  he  learns  its  vast  area. 
Colombia  is  twelve  times  the  size  of  the  state  of  New  York 
and  more  than  twice  the  size  of  the  great  state  of  Texas. 
Its  length  exceeds  the  distance  from  Chicago  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico;  its  width  is  equal  to  the  distance  from  St.  Louis 
to  New  York.  Its  coast  line  is  longer  than  our  Atlantic 
coast  from  New  York  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood.  N.  Y, 

FIG.  153.     Group  of  native  -washerwomen  on  the  Magdalena  River, 
near  Barranquilla,  Colombia 


296     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Physical  Features  and  Life.     If  mountains  are  high 
enough  they  are  a  barrier  to  people;  if  rivers  are  not 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y. 

FIG.   154.     A  sewing  class  in  a  school  in  Barranquilla,  Colombia 

navigable  people  cannot  use  them  in  settling  new  places 
and  in  taking  their  products  to  market;  if  a  country  lies 
in  the  tropics  where  the  heat  at  sea  level  is  great  it  is 
important  to  know  if  there  is  high  land  where  the  climate 
is  cool  and  white  people  can  live  with  some  comfort. 
We  shall  therefore  look  at  the  physical  features  of 
Colombia  and  see  in  what  respects  these  favor  man  and 
in  what  respects  Colombia  presents  obstacles  to  man's 
use  of  the  land. 

The  Plains  of  Colombia.  Colombia,  like  so  many  of 
the  South  American  countries,  shares  in  the  vast  territory 
of  both  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco  basins.  Almost  one 
half  of  it  lies  within  the  region  drained  by  these  great 
rivers  and  their  tributaries.  What  we  have  learned  about 


PEOPLES   OF   COLOMBIA  297 

the  forests  and  wild  Indian  tribes,  the  plains  and  products 
of  the  Amazon  valley,  is  as  true  of  southeastern  Colombia 
as  of  Brazil,  where  most  of  the  Amazon  country  is 
found.  The  flat  river  plains  of  eastern  Colombia  are 
the  least-known  parts  of  the  country  to-day.  North- 
ward and  westward  they  are  separated  from  the  seacoast 
by  mountains;  on  the  east  it  is  a  month's  journey  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Amazon  and  the  Atlantic  and  almost  as 
long  to  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco.  For  many  thousands 
of  years  the  mountain  stienrns  havo  been  rn trying  thf 
deJtntu^^._J±L£Lhigli.  land  down  to  the  low  land  and  ac- 
cumulating  it  there.  As  a  result  the  plains  are  very  smooth 
—  true  river  plains  built  up  by  the  age-long  work  of  the 
hundreds  of  streams  that  drain  the  eastern  slopes  of  the 
lofty  Andes  of  Colombia  (Plate  VIII). 

Few  industries  of  any  importance  are  found  on  these 
river  plains.  The  region  is  too  far  from  the  great  routes 
of  trade.  It  would  cost  more  than  chey  would  be  worth 
to  market  the  hides  and  the  mules  that  the  grassy  plains 
might  produce.  Until  steamers  or  launches  ply  upon 
the  eastern  streams  but  little  will  be  produced  upon  the 
bordering  pastures. 

To  show  how  difficult  life  is  upon  the  grasslands  of 
eastern  Colombia  take  the  single  item  of  salt,  which  most 
people  would  not  think  of  as  affecting  a  country's  develop- 
ment. President  Reyes,  after  visiting  the  region  years  ago, 
told  his  people  that  a  cheap  supply  of  salt  is  necessary  to 
the  eastern  plains  before  they  can  be  exploited  properly. 
Others  speak  of  the  eager  quest  for  salt  and  say  that  the 
want  of  it  is  severely  felt  in  many  places.  We  sometimes 
hear  it  said  that  a  lazy  man  is  not  worth  his  salt — a  say- 
ing that  may  be  literally  true  in  a  country  where  salt  is 
so  valuable. 

In  the  coast  regions  salt  is  made  by  the  evaporation 


2 Q8     SOUTH   AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

of  sea  water  that  has  become  very  salty  through  con- 
centration in  the  lagoons  where  evaporation  is  rapid 
owing  to  the  high  temperature.  In  the  interior  of  the 
country  are  deposits  that  would  yield  great  quantities 
of  salt  if  they  were  properly  worked.  One  of  the  most 
noted  of  the  interior  salt  mines  is  that  at  Cipaquira, 
about  thirty  miles  north  of  Bogota,  where  thousands  of 
tons  are  produced  annually  and  the  deposits  seem  inex- 
haustible. But  the  supply  of  salt  in  the  country  as  a 
whole  is  still  very  limited  and  a  great  deal  of  that  used 
by  the  people  of  Colombia  comes  from  abroad.  Both 
the  imported  salt  and  that  mined  in  the  country  is  sub- 
jected to  a  heavy  tax,  one  of  the  sources  of  government 
revenue. 

Of  great  advantage  to  Colombia  in  the  opening  of  her 
eastern  plains  is  the  boundary  treaty  with  Brazil  which 
was  signed  in  1907.  It  gives  to  each  country  the  right 
to  navigate  the  rivers  running  partly  through  one  country 
and  partly  through  the  other.  Most  of  the  rivers  of 
southeastern  Colombia  cross  over  into  Brazil  and  after 
4ong  journeys  reach  the  Amazon.  To  ship  the  cattle 
and  hides  that  the  future  herds  of  this  region  will  produce, 
to  export  the  rubber,  and  to  send  to  other  countries  the 
tropical  woods  in  which  the  eastern  valleys  abound,  will 
require  the  free  use  of  the  waterways,  since  these  are  the 
only  means  of  transportation  that  exist.  Both  nations 
also  have  agreed  to  improve  the  rivers  on  their  com- 
mon boundary. 

In  contrast  to  the  vast  flat  spaces  of  southeastern 
Colombia  are  the  mountains  and  deep  valleys  of  the  west. 
The  Andes  of  Colombia  consist  of  three  nearly  parallel 
chains  running  in  a  north-south  direction,  the  eastern, 
central,  and  western  Cordilleras.  JToward  the  south  the 
mountains  consist  largelv  of  volcanic  rnr.k  which  has  been 


PEOPLES   OF   COLOMBIA  299 

poured  out  upon  the  surface  in  great  amounts,  in  some 
places  blocking~tHe~coufses  of  riverlF  and  turning  them  in 
new  directions.  The  summits  of  a  few  of  the  volcanoes 
are  so  lofty  that  their  tops  are  covered  with  perpetual 
snow.  In  northern  Colombia  near  the  shores  of  the 
Caribbean  and  standing  so  near  the  sea  that  its  white 
summits  are  visible  from  the  shore  is  the  mountain  knot 
called  the  Sierra  Nevada  de  Santa  Marta.  Though  it 
lies  near  Ffie  great  Andean  system  it  is  separated  from  it 
by  the  deep  Cesar  valley. 

In  the  extreme  northwestern  part  of  Colombia  is  still 
another  group  of  mountains,  the  Cordillera  de  Choco. 
These  are  the  lowest  of  all  the  mountains  of  Colombia 
and  stretch  northwestward  through  Central  America, 
here  and  there  crowned  by  volcanoes  some  of  which  still 
throw  out  steam  and  lava  and  at  long  intervals  overwhelm 
cities  and  plantations,  killing  many  people,  and  laying 
waste  the  land. 

From  the  loftier  mountains  of  Colombia  may  be  seen 
some  of  the  grandest  scenery  which  the  country  affords. 
The  Cerro  Munchique,  in  the  western  Cordillera,  com- 
mands a  view  over  more  than  fifteen  thousand  square 
miles  of  country.  From  it  the  Pacific  coast  appears  to 
be  spread  out  like  a  map.  All  the  curves  of  the  shore  and 
the  thousands  of  bays  and  islands  may  be  clearly  traced. 
Toward  the  east  a  gorgeous  panorama  is  spread  before 
the  eye.  Crowning  the  mountain  ranges  are  snow-capped 
peaks  and  below  them  are  the  purple  and  brown  mountain 
sides.  Bands  of  bright-colored  vegetation  mark  out  the 
valleys  threaded  by  winding  rivers  and  interrupted  here 
and  there  by  foaming  cascades. 

The  Cold  Paramos  of  the  Mountains.  It  is  difficult 
to  say  which  is  more  to  be  dreaded,  the  heat  of  the  tropical 
plains  east  of  the  mountains  or  the  cold  of  those  higher 


300     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

portions  of  the  Colombian  plateau  called  pdramos.  The 
latter  are  usually  overhung  with  an  intensely  cold  and 
raw  mist  and  swept  by  a  wind  that  chills  the  traveler  to 
the  bone.  They  are  uninhabited  save  for  a  few  scattered 
cattle  raisers,  and  the  occasional  traveler  hurries  over 
them  as  quickly  as  he  can.  Many  an  unfortunate  animal 
perishes  here,  and  now  and  then  a  native  caught  out  upon 
these  bleak  highlands  has  lost  his  life  from  exposure  to  the 
cold.  It  is  between  the  cold  paramos  and  the  hot  llanos 
that  one  finds  the  pleasant  forested  valleys  of  Colombia, 
with  all  varieties  of  climate  and  some  of  the  most  delight- 
ful views  that  the  country  affords  (Plate  XI). 

Between  the  three  main  ranges  of  the  Andes  are  the 
chief  rivers  of  Colombia.  The  eastern  and  the  central 
Andes  are  separated  by  the  long  valley  of  the  Magdalena ; 
the  valley  of  the  Cauca,  the  chief  tributary  of  the  Magda- 
lena, lies  between  the  central  and  the  western  Andes.  On 
the  eastern  face  of  the  eastern  Andes  are  steep  mountain 
torrents  that  swell  the  rivers  of  the  plains,  just  as  on  the 
western  slopes  of  the  western  Andes  there  are  many  short 
mountain  streams  that  run  down  steep  slopes  to  the 
Pacific. 

Only  four  important  streams  remain,  and  these  are  at 
the  four  corners  of  Colombia,  and  for  this  reason  will  be 
very  easy  to  remember.  In  the  southeastern  part  of  the 
republic  is  the  Guaviare,  draining  the  greater  portion  of 
the  plains  country ;  the  Patia  on  the  southwest  cuts  across 
the  coast  ranges  or  the  western  Cordillera,  and  offers  a 
pathway  from  the  Pacific  coast  to  the  interior  valleys; 
between  the  mountains  that  are  found  in  the  extreme 
northwestern  part  and  the  northern  end  of  the  western 
Cordillera  is  the  famous  Atrato  valley,  draining  toward 
the  Caribbean  Sea  and  making  another  section  of  Colombia 
available  to  man;  while  in  the  northeastern  corner  is  the 


PEOPLES  OF   COLOMBIA  301 

Cesar  valley  and  river,  a  valley  rich  in  pasture  and  sup- 
porting great  herds  of  cattle.  If  we  remember  the  two 
central  valleys  of  the  Cauca  and  Magdalena  and  the  four 
streams  and  valleys  at  the  four  corners  of  the  country  we 
shall  be  able  easily  to  understand  a  great  deal  of  the  geog- 
raphy of  Colombia,  for  the  people  of  Colombia  depend  so 
much  upon  the  valleys  for  food  and  trade  that  only  a 
small  number  live  outside  them. 

The  Magdalena  River.  How  many  of  us  know  that  the 
Magdalena  (Fig.  155)  is  one  of  the  great  rivers  of  the 
world,  and  the  fourth  river  in  size  in  South  America? 
Laid  out  upon  a  map  of  the  United  States  the  Magdalena 
would  reach  from  Philadelphia  to  Chicago,  from  New  York 
to  Florida,  from  San  Francisco  to  Denver.  This  great 
river  is  more  than  a  thousand  miles  long  and  drains  an 
area  larger  than  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  or  about 
one  hundred  thousand  square  miles.  What  this  means 
to  the  people  who  live  in  its  basin  can  be  realized  only  by 
remembering  that  Colombia  has  few  railways  and  her 
rivers  mean  much  more  to  her  than  the  rivers  of  the 
United  States  do  to  us.  The  Magdalena  drains  a  large 
part  of  Colombia,  is  navigable  for  hundreds  of  miles,  and 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bmcham 

FIG.    155.     Scene  on  the  lower  Magdalena.     Here  the  river  is  so 
stagnant  that  plants  grow  in  the  water  as  in  a  pond 


302     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

is  joined  by   over  five   hundred    tributaries    from    the 
mountains  that  flank  its  valley. 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  156.     Barranquilla  Harbor,  Colombia,  where  the  river  journey 

begins.     A  railroad  ten  miles  long  connects  Barranqidlla 

with  the  ocean  port,  Puerto,  Colombia 

The  upper  part  of  the  Magdalena  is  a  steep  mountain 
torrent  and  of  little  service  to  man.  One  hundred  and 
seventy  miles  from  its  source  it  is  joined  by  the  Neiva, 
and  here  navigation  in  the  upper  Magdalena  begins  and 
continues  for  more  than  a  hundred  miles  to  the  rapids  of 
Honda.  These  break  navigation  for  twenty  miles  and 
were  once  the  cause  of  much  expense  because  all  goods 
destined  for  the  plateau  and  the  capital,  Bogota,  had 
to  be  carried  around  them  on  muleback  (Fig.  157).  Now 
a  short  railway  provides  for  the  easier  passage  of  goods 
and  passengers  from  the  steamer  above  the  rapids  to  the 
steamer  below  them.  Below  the  rapids  of  Honda  there 
are  more  than  three  hundred  miles  of  navigable  water 
right  down  to  the  sea;  and  for  the  last  two  hundred  miles 
the  Magdalena  is  a  broad  and  beautiful  sheet  of  water 
(Fig.  175).  Side  channels  branch  from  the  main  stream 
to  join  it  again  farther  down  after  circling  about  tracts  of 


PEOPLES  OF   COLOMBIA 


303 


lowland.     Along  both  banks  are  tropical  swamps,  some 
of  which  are  flooded  when  the  rivers  are  high. 

The  traffic  of  the  lower  Magdalena  is  carried  on 
chiefly  by  means  of  stern-  and  side-wheel  steamers  (Fig. 
158).  During  the  dry  season  when  the  river  is  low  and  all 
steamer  traffic  is  stopped  or  delayed  people  go  down  the 
river  in  champans,  a  kind  of  large  canoe  covered  over  at 
one  end,  and  worked  by  a  crew  of  fifteen  to  eighteen  men. 
In  addition  there  are  rafts  of  bamboo  which  go  downstream 
only.  When  they  reach  the  port  for  which  they  are  bound 
the  logs  of  the  rafts  as  well  as  the  goods  floated  down  upon 
them  are  sold,  and  the  owners  start  back  overland  or 
return  by  boat  for  a  new  cargo.  The  river  steamers  carry 
all  kinds  of  goods,  since  almost  all  the  supplies  for  the  cities 
and  people  of  the  plateau  must  come  up  the  great  river. 


FIG.  157. 


Courtesy  of  Hi  rain  Bingham 

Importing  goods  for  Bogota  by  pack  train 


304     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Imported   coal  is   so  expensive  that   the   Magdalena 
steamers  burn  wood,  and  not  only  in  this  respect  but 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  158.     A  Magdalena  River  steamer.     The  old-fashioned  stern- 
wheeler  is  still  in  use  here,  and  wood  is  burned  for.  fuel 

also  in  most  others  they  remind  one  of  the  boats  on 
the  Mississippi  sixty  years  ago  before  railways  were  built 
throughout  the  Mississippi  lowlands.  Two  or  three  times 
a  day  the  steamers  run  up  to  the  bank  and  take  on  fuel. 
The  wood  is  stacked  in  piles  two  or  three  feet  across  and 
five  feet  high.  Clearings  begun  at  the  edge  of  the  river 
gradually  grow  in  size  as  the  trees  are  removed.  A  few 
wood  cutters  live  at  each  landing  and  inhabit  a  wretched 
hut  or  two  (Fig.  159). 

To  add  to  the  delay  of  the  traveler  the  steamers  find 
the  currents  and  the  shoals  so  difficult  to  navigate  that 
they  tie  up  to  the  bank  at  nightfall  and  wait  until  day- 
light to  continue  the  voyage.  When  the  water  of  the 
river  is  at  moderate  height  steamers  can  be  navigated 
night  and  day  as  far  as  La  Gloria,  two  hundred  and 
eighty-two  miles  above  Barranquilla  (Fig.  160).  The 
river  journey  is  also  varied  at  times  by  the  grounding  of 


PEOPLES  OF   COLOMBIA 


305 


the  steamer  upon  some  shallow  sand  bar,  from  which  it 
is  freed  only  by  much  patient  labor  on  the  part  of  pilot 
and  captain. 

Indians  and  Negroes  of  the  Hot  Lowlands.  The 
swampy  lowlands  of  the  lower  valley  of  the  Magdalena 
have  almost  no  people  on  account  of  the  widespread  floods, 
the  unhealthful  climate,  the  great  heat,  and  the  abundant 
vegetation.  This  vast  area  is  without  towns  except  at  a 
few  small  river  stations  such  as  Mompos,  Tenerife,  and 
Tacaloa  at  the  junction  of  the  Cauca  and  the  Magdalena. 
In  these  sweltering  plains  and  stifling  valleys  the  white 
man  does  not  find  life  attractive.  If  he  goes  there  it  is 
to  stay  for  a  short  time  only  and  for  purposes  of  busi- 
ness or  adventure  or  exploration.  The  white  man  and 
the  Indian  live  on  the  uplands ;  on  the  hot  and  unhealth- 
ful lowlands  pure-blooded  negroes  are  almost  the  only 
inhabitants.  The  few  Indians  that  live  on  the  lowlands 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FlG.   159.     One  of  the  wood  stations  on  the  Magdalena  River,  Colom- 
bia, where  wood  cutters  supply  the  river  steamers  with  fuel 

20 


306     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

are  still  in  a  state  of  rudest  savagery.  The  naked  tribes 
of  the  Opon  territory,  almost  within  sight  from  the 
Magdalena  steamers,  still  roam  about  in  the  dense  forests, 
killing  birds  and  other  animals  with  bow  and  arrow. 

Upon  the  plains  of  the  western  slope  of  the  country 
fronting  the  Pacific  the  people  live  much  the  same  sort 
of  life  as  in  the  Magdalena  lowlands.  Scarcely  a  sign  of 
civilization  greets  the  traveler  in  making  a  journey  up  the 
San  Juan  River  from  Buenaventura  to  Novita.  The 
dugout  canoes  and  the  naked  negroes  in  them,  the  palm- 
thatched  huts  built  on  stakes  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers, 
the  blow-guns,  the  bows  and  arrows  for  fishing  purposes, 
the  grass  ropes  and  bark  sleeping-mats  are  all  as  simple 
and  primitive  as  one  could  find  in  the  depths  of  a  Malayan 
jungle. 

Indians  and  Whites  of  the  Highlands.  Here  as  else- 
where in  the  northern  part  of  South  America  the  most 
highly  developed  peoples  are  found  not  on  the  hot 
lowlands  but  on  the  cool  highlands.  The  Indians  of 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 


FIG.  1 60.    La  Gloria  on  the  Magdalena  River 


PEOPLES  OF   COLOMBIA  307 

the  plateau   of  Colombia,   in  contrast   to  their  savage 
brothers,  lead  a  very  advanced  type  of  life.     They  have 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  161.     Native  village,  Colombia 

paved  roads  which  cross  gorges  by  means  of  light  sus- 
pension bridges.  Long  before  the  discovery  of  America 
they  erected  stone  shrines  to  their  gods,  were  skillful 
weavers,  dyers,  and  potters,  and  even  had  a  form  of  money 
used  in  trade.  The  cool  climate  of  the  plateau  and  high 
mountain  valleys  made  these  people  more  energetic,  so 
that  they  had  better  homes  and  applied  intelligence  to 
their  work  (Fig.  161). 

The  white  people  of  Colombia  live  well  above  the 
unhealthful  lowlands,  on  the  plateau  where  the  climate 
is  invigorating.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  only  a  few 
hundred  miles  from  the  equator  the  winds  are  cool  and 
the  temperature  mild.  It  is  a  land  of  eternal  spring. 
The  population  is  densest  here:  one  hundred  and  twenty 
per  square  mile  in  the  most  thickly  populated  parts.  The 
people  live  either  on  the  high  plains  and  basins  or  in  the 
narrower  valleys  of  the  cool  zone.  It  is  also  worth  while 
to  note  that  the  people  of  Colombia  live  chiefly  within  the 
central  valleys.  Very  few  people  live  in  the  cool  valleys 


308     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

that  drain  toward  the  flat  plains  of  the  east  or  that  run 
down  to  the  Pacific,  because  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
carry  their  products  over  the  rough  mountain  trails. 
Though  the  climate  of  these  places  is  mild  and  the  soil 
fertile  man  finds  his  crops  too  far  away  from  the  trade 
routes.  Goods  from  the  outside  world  cost  too  much  and 
the  cattle  and  corn  of  the  farms  are  too  remote  from 
market  to  benefit  their  owners.  The  forests  on  the  outer 
slopes  contain  only  a  sprinkling  of  population  (Plate  X) . 

The  Cattle  Ranches  of  the  Cesar  Valley.  Between  the 
Rio  Ariguani  and  the  Magdalena  the  country  is  low  and 
swampy,  the  water  collecting  in  countless  pools  and 
hollows.  Most  of  the  low  hills  are  occupied  by  cattle 
corrals.  In  spite  of  the  abundant  and  extremely  annoying 
insect  life  the  swamps  are  favorite  pasture  grounds  during 
a  part  of  the  year;  indeed,  between  the  Nevadas  de  Santa 
Marta  and  the  Andes  are  some  of  the  best  pasture  lands 
in  the  country.  All  the  rivers  of  this  region  flow  through 
beautiful  savannas  which  support  thousands  of  cattle. 
During  the  three  summer  months  when  the  pastures  of 
Valle  de  Upar  on  the  higher  land  of  the  southern  edge  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  de  Santa  Marta  are  parched  and  dried 
up  by  the  sun,  the  owners  of  the  ranches  set  fire  to  the 
useless  grass  so  that  the  new  growth  in  the  following  wet 
season  may  not  be  so  mixed  with  the  dry  grass  as  not  to 
be  readily  found  by  the  cattle.  During  this  dry  period 
the  cattle  are  driven  down  to  the  fresh  pastures  among 
the  islands  of  the  Cesar  River,  where  each  owner  has 
his  house  and  grounds.  The  main  business  of  the  entire 
region  is  cattle  breeding.  The  cattle  are  shipped  chiefly 
to  Cuba  for  the  laborers  of  the  tobacco,  sugar,  and 
cotton  plantations. 

The  Towns  of  Colombia.  Many  of  the  towns  and 
settlements  of  the  plateau  date  from  the  days  before  the 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  162.     Looking  eastward  from  the  center  of  Bogota 

309 


310     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

coming  of  the  Spaniards,  while  others  were  founded  as 
centers  of  Spanish  authority  and  government,  or  as 
missions  from  which  the  missionaries  of  the  Catholic 
Church  attempted  to  Christianize  the  Indians.  The 
country  towns  are  very  numerous,  and  form  centers  of 
trade  where  the  farmers  of  the  region  gather  for  the  regular 
weekly  market.  A  few  towns  have  their  location  deter- 
mined not  by  the  climate  but  by  mineral  deposits ;  others 
have  their  location  determined  by  trade,  as  Zipaquira 
by  a  trade  in  salt  and  La  Mesa  (halfway  between  Mag- 
dalena  and  Bogota)  by  the  exchange  of  goods  between 
the  high  and  the  low  lands.  But  no  other  city  in  the 
republic  is  nearly  so  large  as  Bogota,  the  capital,  with  its 
fifty  thousand  people  (Fig.  162  and  Plate  II). 

At  or  near  the  mouth  of  the  Magdalena  is  a  group  of 
small  towns  through  which  goods  are  shipped  for  the 
denser  populations  of  the  plateau.  These  are  the  ports 
of  Colombia,  but  they  give  little  indication  of  the  number 
of  people  who  dwell  in  the  interior.  Barranquilla,  the 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  163.     The  walls  of  Cartagena,  built  in  the  old  Spanish  days 
at  a  cost  of  many  millions  of  dollars 


PEOPLES   OF   COLOMBIA  311 

most  important  town  (Fig.  156),  is  on  the  main  branch  of 
the  Magdalena  delta  and  is  connected  with  the  exposed 
seaport  of  Savanilla  by  a  railway  twenty  miles  long.  Sand 
banks  and  shifting  channels  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  make 
it  impossible  for  boats  to  sail  up  the  Magdalena  from  the 
sea.  It  is  as  if  New  Orleans  were  shut  of!  from  the  sea, 
as  indeed  it  once  was,  and  had  to  ship  its  goods  to  Mobile 
or  Galveston,  if  these  ports  were  near  by.  Between  1876 
and  1884  a  cattle  trade  with  Cuba  was  carried  on  through 
the  Boca  de  Cenizas,  the  main  mouth  of  the  river,  without 
serious  accident  to  the  steamers,  but  this  route  is  now 
abandoned  in  favor  of  the  railway  to  the  seaport. 

West  of  Savanilla  is  the  old  and  romantic  port  of 
Cartagena.  In  the  days  when  Spain  owned  this  coast 
Cartagena  was  a  great  center  of  trade,  from  which  all 
foreign  boats  and  traders  were  kept  out,  and  where  an 
immense  fortress  (Fig.  163)  was  built  at  a  cost  of  many 
millions  of  dollars.  The  only  other  seaport  on  the 
Caribbean  coast  of  Colombia  is  Santa  Marta,  at  the  foot  of 
the  mountain  knot  from  which  it  takes  its  name,  a  place 
now  grown  famous  as  the  center  of  a  large  banana  trade. 

Bogota,  the  Garden  of  Colombia.  Bogota  is  the  gar- 
den spot  of  Colombia,  a  favored  region  in  which  live  a 
happy  and  prosperous  people.  The  city  is  located  in 
a  basin  about  seventy  miles  long  and  thirty  miles  wide, 
surrounded  by  a  high,  treeless  mountain  wall,  the  source 
of  numerous  streams  which,  with  a  number  of  fresh- 
water lakes,  supply  water  to  the  fields  and  add  beauty  to 
the  landscape.  Near  the  western  edge  of  the  basin  plain 
all  the  streams  unite  to  form  the  River  Funza,  or  Bogota, 
one  of  the  principal  tributaries  of  the  upper  Magdalena. 
Just  before  reaching  the  edge  of  the  plain  the  river  falls 
over  a  perpendicular  cliff  into  a  deep  gorge  four  hundred 
and  ten  feet  below,  the  Falls  of  Tequendama. 


312     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

The  principal  rainy  season  begins  about  September  20, 
and  lasts  until  December  20.  During  this  time  it  rains 
almost  every  day.  The  mornings  are  generally  clear,  the 
rains  beginning  about  noon  and  lasting  until  sunset. 
A  shorter  wet  season  occurs  in  April  and  May.  The  dry 
seasons  last  from  January  to  April  and  from  June  to 
September,  the  sun  shining  from  a  clear  and  almost  cloud- 
less sky  (Plate  I).  At  night,  on  account  of  the  high  eleva- 
tion at  which  the  city  stands,  and  the  clear  atmosphere, 
the  stars  appear  unusually  brilliant  and  much  larger  than 
when  seen  from  the  lower  valleys  or  from  the  coast. 

In  this  serene  valley  lies  the  city  of  Bogota.  It  is 
built  at  the  foot  of  two  high  peaks  that  reach  almost  to 
the  limit  of  perpetual  snow.  The  streets  of  the  city  run 
eastward  up  the  lower  slopes  of  the  mountains,  and  are 
crossed  at  right  angles  by  those  running  north  and  south. 
The  squares  thus  formed  rise  one  above  another  like  the 
benches  of  a  vast  amphitheater  (Fig.  162).  Above  the 
city  are  the  terraced  slopes  and  overshadowing  peaks  of 
Guadeloupe  and  Moncerrate,  upon  whose  topmost  peaks 
two  massive  cathedrals  have  been  built.  From  either 
mountain  one  may  look  westward  about  ninety  miles  to 
the  frozen  summits  of  two  lofty  volcanoes,  Tolima  and 
San  Ruiz,  northward  to  the  fertile  valleys  and  table-lands 
of  Santander  and  Boyaca,  northwestward  to  the  rich 
mining  districts  of  Antioquia,  while  southward  one  may 
see  ridge  after  lofty  ridge  whose  slopes  descend  to  the 
hot  grasslands  of  southeastern  Colombia. 

Revolutions.  Our  newspapers  say  that  the  revolutions 
of  Colombia  show  how  unsettled  is  the  political  state  of 
the  country,  but  we  ought  to  know  that  many  of  them 
scarcely  produce  a  ripple  upon  the  surface  of  Colombian 
life.  A  few  people  think  they  have  a  grievance  against 
the  government.  They  talk  about  it  a  few  days  and  get 


PEOPLES   OF   COLOMBIA  313 

others  to  sympathize  with  them ;  some  guns  are  purchased 
and  a  little  trouble  started,  but  the  sight  of  a  detach- 
ment of  government  troops  is  often  enough  to  end  what 
we  are  accustomed  to  call  "a  comic-opera  war."  Some 
of  the  so-called  revolutions  of  South  America  are  less 
serious  than  those  of  our  labor  strikes  in  which  men  are 
killed  and  government  troops  called  out  to  keep  order. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE  MOUNTAINS  AND  LLANOS  OF  VENEZUELA 

The  Hunting  Ground  of  South  America.  Venezuela 
has  been  called  the  hunting  ground  of  South  America, 
not,  as  one  might  suppose,  because  of  the  many  kinds  of 
game  that  abound  in  its  grasslands  and  tropical  forests, 
but  because  of  its  government.  Securing  a  part  of  the 
public  money  is  to  many  of  the  officials  what  hunting  wild 
game  is  to  the  sportsmen.  The  chief  difference  seems 
to  be  that  the  grafting  official  always  succeeds  while  the 
sportsman  may  not.  Everything  else  about  Venezuela 
is  of  less  importance  to  its  people  than  the  fact  that  the 
country  has  had  until  very  recently  one  of  the  worst 
governments  in  South  America.  This  is  especially  inter- 
esting to  us  here  because  it  seems  only  yesterday  that  the 
United  States  was  obliged  to  think  very  seriously  of 
taking  a  hand  in  straightening  out  the  political  difficulties 
of  the  country. 

The  president  of  Venezuela  for  many  years  was  an  evil- 
minded  person  who  ran  the  affairs  of  his  country  not  as 
an  honest  man  but  as  a  criminal.  He  got  control  of  the 
public  money,  robbed  the  merchants  of  other  countries 
who  tried  to  do  business  in  Venezuela,  imprisoned  people 
,who  were  unfriendly  to  his  bad  designs,  and  ruled  less 
like  a  patriot  than  a  thief.  Under  such  a  man  the  affairs 
of  Venezuela  fell  into  a  bad  way  and  business  was  com- 
pletely demoralized.  No  one  cared  to  sell  goods  to  the 
people  of  the  country  for  fear  that  either  the  buyer  would 
be  in  prison  and  unable  to  pay  for  the- goods  or  that  the 
import  tax  would  be  so  high  the  goods  could  not  be 

3H 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS  OP  VENEZUELA     315 

marketed.  People  who  wished  to  go  to  Venezuela  and  to 
develop  mines  or  plantations  did  not  do  so  because  their 
property  might  be  seized  or  be  so  highly  taxed  that  they 
might  as  well  be  robbed  outright. 

Blessed  with  the  riches  of  a  tropical  plateau,  where  food 
can  be  produced  in  abundance,  and  where  almost  every 
kind  of  plant  may  be  grown,  Venezuela  so  far  has  been 
a  most  unhappy  land.  Think  of  a  country  where  in  the 
past  seventy-five  years  there  have  been  fifty-one  revolu- 
tions— on  the  average,  a  revolution  every  sixteen  months! 
We  are  proud  to  think  that  in  our  revolution  of  1776  we 
spent  some  of  the  best  blood  in  the  country  to  become 
an  independent  nation.  Such  a  revolution  is  heroic.  It  is 
planned  from  patriotic  motives  by  men  working  not  for 
their  own  personal  good  but  for  the  good  of  all  the  people. 

Far  from  this  ideal  are  the  revolutions  of  Venezuela. 
Civil  war  in  Venezuela  offers  a  chance  to  rob,  not  a  chance 
to  fight  for  a  good  cause ;  it  is  a  time  of  pillage  and  burn- 
ing, not  a  time  for  risking  one's  life  for  one's  country;  it 
is  a  chance  for  evil  men  to  be  evil  without  being  punished ; 
a  chance  for  good  men  to  be  put  into  prison  simply  because 
they  oppose  those  things  that  will  harm  the  people.  It 
is  not  the  rising  of  all  the  people  against  a  bad  government 
but  the  rising  of  one  group  of  bad  men  against  another 
group  of  bad  men  with  the  common  people  but  little 
interested  in  the  result ;  for  if  they  lose  one  set  of  robbers 
who  run  the  government  it  is  only  to  gain  another  set  as 
bad  or  worse.  It  is  this  unhappy  condition  of  affairs  that 
has  kept  Venezuela  from  becoming  the  powerful  and  rich 
nation  that  it  deserves  to  be.  Its  riches  are  manifold,  and 
it  is  near  the  great  buying  nations  of  North  America  and 
Europe ;  all  that  it  needs  is  a  good  government.  With  that 
assured,  Venezuela  will  be  completely  changed. 

Such  a  change  in  the  condition  of  Venezuela  we  have  a 


316     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

right  to  expect  at  the  present  time.  The  despotic  ruler 
has  been  driven  out  of  the  country.  A  new  president 
has  been  elected.  The  people  have  become  weary  of 
being  robbed  and  plundered  by  mean  officials;  of  seeing 
their  president  grow  rich  when  the  money  which  he  takes 
should  be  spent  in  making  roads  over  which  cattle  could 
be  driven  to  market  and  in  building  railways  over  which 
men  might  ship  their  fruits,  cotton,  and  rice,  and  bring 
in  the  goods  of  other  countries.  The  people  of  other 
countries  hope  that  under  her  new  president  Venezuela 
will  be  free  and  her  people  happy. 

Scenery  and  Towns  on  the  North  Coast.  Let  us  turn 
from  these  unhappy  conditions  to  the  brighter  side  of  the 
picture,  for  Venezuela  has  indeed  some  very  charming 
aspects.  Its  rivers,  its  mountains,  its  valleys,  its  ports 
are  full  of  interest.  It  is  also  near  our  doors  and  we  are 
naturally  interested  in  our  neighbors.  It  is  only  a  seven 
days'  sail  from  New  York  to  Venezuela.  In  a  week  one 
may  pass  from  our  temperate  land  to  tropical  Venezuela. 

The  chief  port  of  Venezuela  and  the  one  through  which 
almost  all  visitors  enter  the  country  is  La  Guaira.  Sailors 
call  it  the  worst  port  in  the  world.  It  is  merely  an  open 
roadstead,  and  even  in  calm  weather  there  is  a  heavy 
surf  on  the  steep  shore;  and  when  the  wind  blows,  as  it 
does  almost  every  afternoon,  the  waves  are  so  high  that  it 
becomes  dangerous  and  sometimes  impossible  to  load  or 
to  unload  boats.  They  must  then  wait  for  the  waves  to 
subside.  A  pier  and  a  few  other  works  have  been  made 
to  afford  a  shelter. 

The  town  built  about  the  port  has  a  single  street.  This 
is  because  steep  mountains  run  directly  down  to  the  shore 
and  there  is  but  little  flat  land  on  which  houses  may  be 
built.  Part  of  the  town  clings  to  the  slope  of  the  moun- 
tains and  one  wonders  that,  in  this  land  of  earthquakes, 


PLATE  X,     Density  of  population 


^K        /   \di  f*rJ\        •>   ^•Qr-*^'        \>ir L    INIHAD^BR.) 

•>         J    I*  .Milnicuibo      "          0   s)>,                            ^o^**  •= 

M^^in^:^  1 

/^V-Bofi^T  /                    TI5H^TCH/^CCH  ftql 

<t°MB^   /^T^.^fiX^; 

;;  Cot  OM^OU^V^^-  T^J         T                         uV^fM^^                     i  ' 

'X°'/-V-~_1  ^OMiA  I 


FALKLAND  Is. 

Magellan 
EL  FUEGO 

Horn  6()°Ix.ng.  W«t  from  Greenwich 


PLATE  XII.     Races  of  man 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS  OF   VENEZUELA     317 

the  houses  are  not  shaken  off  into  the  sea.     It  is  a  small 
port,  very  hot,  damp,  and  uncomfortable,  and  one  feels 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  BinRham 

FIG.  164.     View  of  Caracas,  Venezuela 

more  as  if  one  were  taking  a  steam  bath  than  walking 
about  in  the  air.  Travelers  are  glad  to  get  away  from 
the  sweltering  port  to  the  cool  hills  and  mountains  back 
of  the  town. 

The  railway  across  the  coast  ranges  back  of  La  Guaira 
unites  Caracas,  the  capital  (Fig.  164),  with  the  seacoast 
and  with  the  trade  routes  of  the  world.  It  is  astonish- 
ing to  find  that  the  distance  between  the  seaport  and  the 
capital  is  but  a  few  miles  in  a  straight  line  and  yet  that 
it  takes  several  hours  to  make  the  journey  by  train. 
The  reason  for  this  is  that  the  railway  must  cross  the  range 
of  mountains  that  lies  between  the  port  and  Caracas.  The 
train  first  climbs  over  a  pass,  from  which  it  descends 


318     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


to  the  capital  four  thousand  feet  above  the  sea;  and  it 
requires  so  roundabout  a  course  that  instead  of  eight 
miles  the  train  must  travel  twenty-three  miles. 

The  scenery  along  the  railway  is  superb  and  at  the 
pass  it  becomes  extraordinary:  on  one  side  is  the  ocean 

and  the  port;  on 
the  other  is  the  val- 
ley leading  down  to 
the  city  of  Caracas 
surrounded  by  ex- 
tensive plantations 
of  sugar  cane.  The 
curves  of  the  rail- 
way are  extremely 
sharp  and  the  line 
crosses  splendid 
mountain  gorges, 
beautiful  valleys, 
and  sharp  moun- 
tain spurs. 

From  the  foot 
of  the  coast  ranges 
that  lie  between 
Caracas  and  La 
Guaira  the  land 
stretches  away  for 
hundreds  of  miles 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  165.     The  University  and  the  Academy 
of  History,  Caracas,  Venezuela 


toward  the  interior 
of  Venezuela  as  a 
succession  of  valleys  and  low  ranges  which  at  last  give 
way  to  the  great  interior  plains.  Caracas  itself  lies  in  a 
beautiful  mountain  valley,  surrounded  by  gardens  and 
farms  that  supply  food  to  the  people  (Fig.  164). 

The  city  has  many  attractive  features  and  the  natives 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS   OF   VENEZUELA     319 

are  never  tired  of  singing  its  praises.  The  plazas  are 
objects  of  great  care  and  beauty.  The  houses  are  low, 
one-story  buildings,  painted  white,  with  stone  and  adobe 
walls  and  red-tiled  roofs.  On  account  of  the  uniformly 
low  houses  the  town  has  a  flat  appearance,  which  is  broken 
but  rarely  by  the  towers  of  the  churches  or  the  large 
roof  of  some  high  public  building  (Figs.  165  and  166). 
In  the  cafes  one  finds  bright  Germans,  French,  and  Eng- 
glish  who  are  in  Caracas  on  business  or  pleasure.  They 
furnish  small,  gay  groups  that  add  an  enlivening  foreign 
air  to  the  town. 

The  Surface  of  the  Country.  The  northern  part  of 
Venezuela  is  rugged  and  mountainous,  and  mountains 
border  it  on  the  southeast  as  well.  But  in  the  interior  of 
the  country  between  the  mountain  systems  are  the  broad 
plains  of  central  Venezuela,  the  grasslands,  or  llanos  as 
they  are  called.  Between  the  two  extremes  of  lofty 
mountain  and  low,  flat  plain  are  all  kinds  of  scenery  and 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  1 66.     Caracas,  Venezuela.     Avenida  del  Sur,  the  principal 
shopping  street,  looking  toward  the  cathedral 


320     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

every  variety  of  climate.    The  Sierra  Nevada  de  Merida  (in 
the  northwestern  part  of  the  country)  alone  among  the 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.   167.     On  the  road  to  Barinas,  western   Venezuela.     On  the 

right  are  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes;  on  the  left,  the 

piedmont  plains  that  stretch  away  from  the  foot 

of  the  mountains 

mountains  of  Venezuela  has  three  or  four  peaks  that  rise 
into  the  realm  of  winter.  Elsewhere  the  mountain 
summits  generally  have  a  covering  of  vegetation. 

Descending  from  the  snowy  peaks  one  passes  first 
through  the  region  of  mild  temperature  and  beautiful 
climate,  then  the  hot  lowlands  of  the  interior.  At  the 
mouth  of  the  Orinoco  one  may  even  sail  through  plains  so 
low  that  the  land  for  many  miles  stands  only  a  few  inches 
above  water.  Since  each  climatic  belt  has  its  own  char- 
acteristic plants  and  animals,  Venezuela  is  far  from  being 
a  monotonous  country. 

The  Three  Kinds  of  Plains  in  Venezuela.  To  under- 
stand the  plains  of  central  Venezuela  one  must  know  that 
they  are  not  all  alike.  Three  quite  different  kinds  of 
plains  may  be  seen  in  going  from  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco 
to  its  headwaters  in  the  mountains  of  eastern  Colombia. 
They  are  all  alike  in  being  generally  flat,  but  each  was 
formed  in  a  different  way.  The  plains  at  the  mouth  of 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS  OF   VENEZUELA     321 

the  Orinoco  are  almost  as  flat  as  the  sea,  those  of  the 
interior  are  either  gently  rolling  or  hilly,  with  streams  that 
run  in  courses  cut  well  below  the  general  level  of  the 
country,  while  near  the  foot  of  the  mountains  are  swampy 
plains  crossed  by  sluggish  rivers.  We  shall  do  well  to 
call  these  plains  by  particular  names  which  may  be  used 
in  describing  them. 

The  first  kind  may  be  called  delta  plains,  and  these  we 
shall  find  only  at  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco;  the  second 
may  be  called  dissected  river  plains,  and  these  make  up 
most  of  the  interior  parts  of  the  llanos  country;  the  third 
occur  along  the  edges  of  all  the  mountains,  and  especially 
along  the  western  edge  of  the  plains  where  the  mountains 
are  highest,  and  are  called  piedmont  alluvial  plains  (Fig. 
167)  because  they  lie  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  and  are 
made  of  the  detritus  of  the  mountains  that  has  been 
carried  down  through  gorges  by  the  mountain  streams. 
We  shall  now  try  to  get  as  clear  an  idea  as  possible  of  these 
three  kinds  of  plains,  for  some  of  them  support  one  of 


FIG.  1 68.     Sketch  map  of  the  delta  of  the  Orinoco 


322     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

the  great  sources  of  wealth,  the  herds  of  cattle  and  mules 
that  graze  upon  their  wide  pastures. 

The  Delta  Plains  of  the  Orinoco.  The  size  and  nature 
of  the  delta  plains  at  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco  may  be 
realized  from  the  map  (Fig.  168).  This  shows  the  large 
number  of  river  channels  that  cross  them.  Instead  of 
having  one  channel  to  the  sea,  the  Orinoco  has  many 
channels  since  it  is  a  delta-building  stream.  The  river 
splits  up  into  a  dozen  different  branches  and  these  again 
into  others  until  there  is  formed,  as  the  map  shows,  a 
bewildering  network  of  criss-crossing  and  interlacing 
channels.  The  whole  of  this  tract  is  a  great  swamp  with 
only  a  few  people  but  with  the  most  luxuriant  vegetation. 
For  thousands  of  years  the  Orinoco  has  been  bringing 
down  mud,  silt,  and  sand  and  depositing  them  at  its 
mouth.  Gradually  the  land  has  been  built  up  until  it 
stands  above  sea  level,  but  so  little  above  that  sometimes 
it  is  hard  to  tell  where  the  sea  begins  and  the  newly  made 
land  ends.  As  the  swamp  dwellers  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  say :  "  The  best  way  to  tell  land  from  water  is 
to  set  up  a  stick:  if  it  falls  over  call  the  surface  water, 
and  if  it  stands  up  call  it  land."  Here  upon  this  half- 
drowned  edge  of  the  continent  'Columbus  first  thought 
that  he  had  found  a  continent,  for  he  argued  that  such 
an  enormous  body  of  fresh  water  could  be  collected  only 
from  a  river  having  a  long  course,  and  that  the  land  must 
be  not  an  island  but  a  continent. 

Upon  the  marshes  of  the  lower  Orinoco  it  might  seem 
as  if  no  one  could  live,  the  land  is  so  wet  and  the  climate 
so  hot  and  unhealthful.  Few  indeed  are  the  people  who 
dwell  there,  but  a  number  of  Indians  do  make  it  their 
home  and  find  among  the  swamps  and  lagoons  of  the 
delta  both  food  and  shelter.  These  Indians  belong  chiefly 
to  the  tribes  known  as  the  Warraus  that  were  described 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS   OF   VENEZUELA     323 

by  Raleigh  and  many  later  travelers.  A  few  thousand 
of  them  still  survive,  but  they  are  fast  decreasing  in 
numbers  on  account  of  their  many  wars,  occasional 
epidemics  of  disease,  the  influence  of  alcohol  sold  to  them 
by  unprincipled  traders,  and  the  work  they  are  sometimes 
compelled  to  do  on  the  up-river  plantations.  Once  these 
Indians  dwelt  farther  inland,  but  they  were  driven  down 
into  the  delta  by  the  strong  and  fierce  Caribs,  or  Caraios, 
who  in  their  long  war  canoes  raided  their  neighbors  in 
both  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco  basins  and  conquered 
many  of  them. 

The  delta  of  the  Orinoco  has  many  surprises  in  store 
for  the  traveler  who  paddles  up  its  muddy  waters.  Not 
the  least  of  these  is  the  way  in  which  new  land  is  being 
slowly  made  by  the  work  of  a  tree  called  the  mangrove. 
It  fringes  all  the  shores  of  the  delta,  lines  the  channel 
banks,  and  grows  on  the  border  of  every  lagoon.  The 
mangrove  tree  is  peculiar  in  living  chiefly  in  the  water,  not 
chiefly  in  the  earth  as  is  the  case  with  most  ordinary 
trees.  Its  long  roots — which  give  it  the  appearance  of 
standing  on  stilts — are  sent  down  through  the  shallow 
water  and  only  their  lower  ends  are  secured  in  the  bottom 
mud.  It  seems  as  if  a  slight  push  would  topple  the  man- 
grove over,  but  it  is  really  well  anchored  and  will  grow 
even  where  there  is  a  moderate  surf.  Crabs,  turtles, 
and  fish,  besides  many  other  forms  of  water  life,  may  be 
found  about  the  roots.  Mud  and  sand  brought  down  by 
the  streams  lodge  there  also,  and,  accumulating  year 
after  year,  slowly  build  up  the  bottom  and  make  dry 
land.  If  it  were  not  for  these  "marine  forests"  the  land 
would  not  have  been  extended  so  far. 

The  great  geographer,  Humboldt,  when  he  visited 
South  America  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
made  a  voyage  up  the  Orinoco.  It  is  interesting  to  know 


324     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

that  he  thought  the  people  of  Venezuela  represented  the 
three  states  of  human  society:  the  life  of  the  hunter  in 
the  woods  of  the  Orinoco,  the  pastoral  life  of  the  ranchman 
on  the  grasslands  or  llanos,  and  the  agricultural  life  in  the 
high  valleys  and  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  on  the  coast. 
In  large  part  this  observation  is  true  of  many  other  coun- 
tries of  South  America  besides  Venezuela,  but  it  will  help 
us  to  remember  the  nature  of  the  people  of  Venezuela 
none  the  less  to  know  that  it  describes  their  threefold 
division  very  accurately.  So,  having  had  a  glimpse  of  the 
savages  who  dwell  among  the  channels  and  islands  of  the 
Orinoco  delta  and  find  food  and  shelter  in  its  vast  swamps, 
let  us  look  next  at  the  kind  of  life  that  depends  upon  the 
grassy  river  plains  along  the  Orinoco  and  its  tributaries. 

Scenery  of  the  Grasslands.  Upon  the  vast  plains  or 
llanos  of  the  Orinoco  valley  the  eye  finds  many  resem- 
blances to  the  sea.  In  a  wide  view  the  almost  level 
plains  stretch  out  mile  after  mile  toward  the  horizon; 
the  slight  irregularities  everywhere  visible  are  like  the 
waves,  the  clumps  of  trees  that  dot  the  plains  seem  like 
islands,  and  the  distant  range  of  mountains  like  the 
shore.  Let  us  not  forget,  however,  that  the  plains  are 
not  smooth  everywhere.  The  flattest  and  lowest  portions 
lie  along  the  valley  floors  of  the  large  rivers  like  the 
Orinoco.  But  in  places  the  tributaries  have  cut  their 
valleys  below  the  higher  plains  away  from  the  rivers  and 
have  furrowed  them  so  deeply  that  when  one  tries  to  cross 
the  country  one  finds  it  in  some  places  decidedly  hilly. 
So  that  there  the  dissected  plains  do  not  appear  like  a 
waveless  sea  but  rather  like  a  choppy  sea.  This  undu- 
lating surface  is  also  broken  by  jutting  masses  of  harder 
rock  that  make  island-like  interruptions  (Fig.  169). 

"From  the  higher  slopes  a  prospect  is  commanded  of 
one  of  the  grandest  scenes  in  nature.  At  your  feet  lies 


MOUNTAINS  AND   LLANOS   OF  VENEZUELA     325 

a  lovely  expanse  of  meadow,  fresh  and  smooth  as  the 
best-trimmed  lawn,  with  troops  of  horses  and  countless 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  169.     The  llanos  of  Casanare,  Colombia 

herds  of  cattle  dispersed  over  the  plains.  Here  and  there 
the  eye  alights  on  glittering  pools  and  lakelets  left  by  the 
last  rains,  and  now  alive  with  an  immense  variety  of 
aquatic  birds.  As  far  as  the  gaze  can  reach,  the  undulat- 
ing grassy  plain  appears  like  a  shoreless  ocean  petrified 
after  a  storm.  No  language  could  convey  a  true  picture 
of  the  varied  beauties  of  the  scene — the  harmonious  effects 
of  light  and  shade;  the  blending  of  the  various  green, 
blue,  and  purple  tints  flitting  in  the  sunlight  over  the  vast 
panorama;  the  stately  palms  gracefully  fanning  the  glow- 
ing atmosphere,  with  their  majestic  crowns  of  broad  and 
shining  foliage."  (Keane.) 

The  grasses  of  the  llanos  are  of  many  varieties.  Some 
of  them  are  soft  as  silk  and  contain  food  of  the  best  kind 
for  cattle  and  horses.  Others  are  of  more  interest  to  the 
botanist  than  to  the  herder,  for  they  are  more  curious  than 
valuable.  The  gamelote  is  of  this  kind.  It  grows  tall 
and  sharp  and  cattle  will  not  eat  it,  while  the  llaneros  or 
cowboys  curse  it,  for  it  cuts  their  hands  and  clothing  and 
the  legs  of  their  riding  animals. 


326     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

The  Great  Orinoco.  The  course  of  the  Orinoco  is 
extremely  irregular  and  winds  in  and  out  in  the  habit 
of  rivers  that  flow  through  flat  plains.  It  is  bordered 
by  magnificent  trees  that  form  narrow  bands  of  forest 
along  each  bank  of  the  stream.  The  traveler  once  in  a 
while  catches  a  glimpse  of  open  savanna,  but  for  miles 
at  a  stretch  it  will  more  often  seem  as  if  he  were  traveling 
through  a  forest  country  rather  than  through  a  grass 
country  whose  rivers  are  lined  with  trees. 

During  the  rainy  season  (from  April  to  November) 
the  river  overflows  its  banks  and  floods  the  surrounding 
lowlands.  The  great  floods  transform  the  plains  of  the 
Orinoco  into  a  vast  inland  sea,  in  places  one  hundred  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  extent  from  north  to 
south  and  hundreds  of  miles  from  east  to  west.  The 
floods  are  especially  well  marked  at  Ciudad  Bolivar,  where 
the  water  sometimes  rises  forty  or  fifty  feet  and  submerges 
the  country  far  and  wide.  The  river  covers  the  lower 
parts  of  the  tree  trunks,  makes  broad  lagoons  along  the 
path  of  the  river,  and  often  completely  changes  its  course 
for  miles.  The  effect  of  an  overflow  is  seen  also  in  the 
large  masses  of  tree  trunks,  branches,  grass,  and  bushes 
that  are  overwhelmed  and  swept  into  the  stream.  The 
branches  of  the  trees  catch  on  the  bottom  and  become 
lodged,  other  trees  and  branches  are  lodged  against  them, 
and  soon  there  is  a  natural  raft  which,  if  it  grows  to  great 
size,  may  be  a  hindrance  to  navigation. 

It  might  seem  as  if  the  floods  of  a  great  river  like  the 
Orinoco  would  make  large  tracts  of  country  useless  and 
would  either  prevent  man  from  coming  into  the  zone  of 
floods  or  drive  him  out  in  case  he  made  an  attempt  to  live 
there.  Such  indeed  is  the  case  in  many  places.  Parts  of 
the  Mississippi  valley  are  not  occupied  by  man  because  the 
excess  of  water  makes  farming  too  difficult.  Many  other 


MOUNTAINS  AND   LLANOS   OF   VENEZUELA     327 

rivers  of  the  world  act  in  this  manner  and  discourage  the 
people  who  attempt  to  make  homes  along  their  borders. 
Much  of  the  land  along  the  Mississippi  has  been  reclaimed, 
however,  by  the  building  of  great  dikes  or  levees  which 
restrain  the  water  in  time  of  flood  and  prevent  the  loss 
of  cattle  and  crops. 

But  the  people  of  the  Orinoco  valley  neither  run  from 
the  river  nor  build  dikes  to  any  extent  to  keep  it  in  its 
regular  course.  Instead,  many  of  them  live  in  houses 
built  on  piles  or  long  poles  driven  into  the  ground.  When 
the  river  is  low  and  the  ground  free  of  water  they  live  on 
the  ground,  but  when  the  water  rises  they  move  to  the 
floor  above.  Life  would  not  be  possible  in  many  places 
without  dwellings  built  on  piles,  and  the  people  would  find 
it  difficult  and  sometimes  impossible  to  travel  without  the 
boats  and  canoes  in  which  they  are  accustomed  to  make 
their  way  from  place  to  place,  looking  after  their  live  stock 
on  the  higher  ground  away  from  the  river  and  gathering  a 
food  supply.  Even  some  of  the  wealthiest  people  of  the 
lowlands  have  rude  houses  built  of  mud  and  piles. 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FlG.  170.     Junction  of  the  two  principal  tributaries  of  the  A  pure 
River i  western  Venezuela 


328     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

A  Seaport  in  the  Llanos.     One  of  the  most  noted  cities 
in  Venezuela  is  Ciudad  Bolivar,  partly  because  it  is  one 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  171.     A  bongo  on  the  A  pure  River 

of  the  few  ports  of  the  country,  partly  because  it  is  in 
the  grasslands  and  reflects  their  interesting  life.  It  lies 
about  halfway  between  the  delta  of  the  Orinoco  River 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Apure —  the  main  branch  of  the 
Orinoco.  Its  old  name,  Angostura,  is  a  more  descrip- 
tive name  than  Ciudad  Bolivar.  Angostura  means  "the 
narrows,"  and  refers  to  the  fact  that  the  river  banks  are 
here  close  together,  and  a  single  port  serves  the  people 
on  both  sides.  The  name  was  changed  to  Ciudad  Bolivar, 
or  city  of  Bolivar,  in  honor  of  the  patriot  Simon  Bolivar 
who  fought  for  years  against  Spanish  rule  and  at  last 
freed  his  country  and  made  it  a  republic.  He  is  often 
called  the  George  Washington  of  South  America.  A 
fine  statue  in  his  honor  is  in  one  of  the  principal  plazas 
of  both  Caracas  and  Ciudad  Bolivar.  On  the  left  (north) 
bank  of  the  river  and  across  the  stream,  here  only  a 
half-mile  wide,  is  the  town  of  Soledad,  which  it  is  planned 
to  connect  with  the  capital,  Caracas.  A  railway  between 
these  two  cities  would  bring  into  use  large  regions  where 
now  there  are  few  civilized  people  and  would  enable 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS  OF   VENEZUELA     329 


Venezuela  to  reach  lands  that  without  the  railway  would 
be  occupied  only  by  a  few  scattered  Caraio  (Carib)  and 
Arawak  Indian  hunters. 

Farther  up  the  Orinoco  is  a  great  tributary,  the  Apure, 
(Figs.  170  and  171),  which  has  its  source  in  the  mountains 
of  Colombia  several  hundred  miles  west.  Here  is  the  very 
heart  of  the  llanos  of  Venezuela,  the  grassy  plains  with 
their  herds  of  cattle,  horses,  and  mules  —  a  great  ranch 
country  where  men  are  accustomed  to  the  saddle  as  the 
people  of  our  towns  are  accustomed  to  street  cars,  where 
the  roads  are  trails,  the  river  crossing  a  ford  (Fig.  172), 
and  where  cattle  are  the  currency  of  the  land.  Here  is  to 
be  found  much  of  the  wealth  of  Venezuela  and  practically 
all  of  the  wealth  of 'the  interior.  What  rubber  is  to  the 
Amazon  Basin,  tin  to  Bolivia,  and  nitrate  of  soda  to  the 
people  of  Chile,  the  cattle  and  mules  of  the  llanos  are  to 
the  people  of  Venezuela.  There  are  other  and  more  im- 
portant industries  in  the  northern  valleys  near  the  Carib- 
bean— for  example,  cacao,  coffee,  sugar,  and  fruits  of 
many  kinds — but  the  heart  of  the  country,  the  great 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Binghs 

FIG.  172.     Crossing  the  Paguei  River,  western    Venezuela 


33°     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

interior,  is  a  country  of  pastoral  peoples,  the  cattlemen 
and  herdsmen  of  Venezuela. 

Ranch  Life  on  the  Llanos.  The  life  and  scenes  of 
this  great  region  are  very  like  those  of  our  grasslands 
in  parts  of  the  West  fifty  to  sixty  years  ago.  There  is 
the  cowboy,  the  corral,  the  camp,  and  the  long  drive 
to  market,  for  much  of  the  region  cannot  be  reached  by 
boat  and  there  are  no  railways.  Large  steamers  go  up 
the  Orinoco  only  so  far  as  Ciudad  Bolivar,  at  the  head 
of  tidewater,  two  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  the  sea. 
During  the  rainy  season,  when  the  waters  are  high  and 
the  river  deep,  smaller  steamers  continue  the  river  trip 
from  Ciudad  Bolivar  to  Nutrias  on  the  Middle  Apure  and 
there  is  an  irregular  service  of  steamers  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Apure  to  Ciudad  Bolivar  more  frequent  than  that 
to  Nutrias.  These  irregular  steamers  are  the  only  means 
the  people  have  of  sharing  the  trade  of  the  outside  world. 
It  is  a  vast,  lonely  interior  which  can  never  have  a  great 
development  until  railways  make  it  possible  to  export 
cattle  more  easily.  Until  then  the  cowboys  must  drive 
their  cattle  long  distances  to  the  rivers  and  wait  there  for 
the  steamer  that  may  not  come  for  two  or  three  weeks 
(Fig.  173).  Since  there  is  a  limit  to  the  distance  that 
cattle  may  be  profitably  driven  to  market,  much  of  the 
interior  country  is  unused  except  by  a  few  Indians  and 
here  and  there  a  lonely  settler  who  has  made  his  home  in 
the  wilderness  and  lives  in  an  independent  way  far  from 
any  neighbor. 

The  Prairie  Fires  of  the  Grasslands.  One  of  the  great 
sights  of  the  llanos  are  the  grass  fires  that  rage  every  year 
during  the  dry  season.  They  may  be  started  by  some 
one  who  wishes  to  burn  the  range  so  that  the  new  grass 
of  the  wet  season  will  grow  faster  and  be  more  easily 
obtained  by  the  cattle,  or  they  may  be  started  by  accident 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS   OF   VENEZUELA     331 

or  by  lightning.  Once  started,  the  fires  spread  with 
astonishing  rapidity  and  sweep  miles  of  country  before 
they  are  stopped  by  rain  or  by  a  river.  Sometimes  they 
burn  through  the  night  and  light  up  the  prairie  for  miles 
about  with  a  pale  yellow  light  as  if  the  sky  were  on  fire. 
During  the  progress  of  a  fire  crowds  of  long-tailed  scissor 
birds  hover  round  the  edge  of  the  flame  and  eagerly 
swallow  insects  that  rush  out  of  the  fire  half  stupefied  by 
smoke.  On  bushes  and  trees  eagles  and  falcons  eagerly 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  173.     Cattle  on  their  way  to  market,  llanos  of  Venezuela 

watch  for  some  frightened  animal  that  rushes  from  the 
flames  only  to  fall  a  prey  to  the  hungry,  waiting  birds. 

Cattle  Driving  in  the  Northern  Llanos.  Between  the 
A  pure  and  the  northern  mountains  of  Venezuela  are  the 
most  used  and  the  best  known  of  the  Venezuelan  llanos. 
From,  the  town  of  San  Fernando  on  the  south  toward 
Valencia  and  Caracas  on  the  north  there  are  rolling 
savannas  grazed  by  thousands  of  cattle.  During  the  dry 
season  the  cattle  are  driven  along  the  Apure  (Fig.  170) 
where  the  grass,  on  account  of  the  wet  condition  of  the 
ground,  grows  well  even  during  the  season  of  little  rain. 
When  the  rains  set  in  the  cattle  are  driven  to  the  high 
northern  savannas;  those  that  are  ready  for  market  are 
then  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  herd  and  driven  to  the 
end  of  the  railway,  where  they  are  shipped  to  the  seacoast 


332     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

or  sent  to  the  towns  that  depend  upon  the  llanos  herds  for 
meat.  The  high  savannas  are  too  dry  for  pasture  during 
the  dry  season  (November  to  March) ,  and  although  a  few 
herds  are  kept  there  the  whole  year  round  they  do  not 
fatten  well.  The  rains  therefore  control  the  migrations 
of  the  cattle  in  Venezuela  in  the  same  way  that  the 
seasons  control  their  migrations  in  mountainous  regions 
like  the  Alps  or  the  Pyrenees. 

The  lower  llanos,  as  the  region  between  the  drier  upper 
pastures  and  the  Apure  is  called,  and  the  upper  llanos 
south  of  Valencia  are  divided  into  great  ranches  by  long 
barbed-wire  fences  which  are  built  by  the  cattlemen  in 
common  just  as  they  also  drive  their  cattle  in  common  in 
going  back  and  forth  between  the  upper  and  the  lower 
pastures. 

The  cowboy  of  the  llanos  is  called  a  llanero.  He  wears 
a  broad  felt  hat  and  cotton  suit,  the  trousers  having  a 
long  slit  at  the  side.  He  always  rides  a  mule,  of  which  he 
is  an  excellent  judge,  is  generally  armed  with  a  revolver 
and  knife,  is  a  good  shot,  and  seems  good-natured  and 
honest.  He  lives  on  corn  cakes  toasted  over  the  coals, 
beef  or  veal,  eggs,  bananas,  cheese,  and  coffee. 

Animal  Life  of  the  Llanos.  The  marshes  and  lagoons 
along  the  water  courses  of  the  llanos  fairly  swarm  with 
birds  of  many  kinds.  There  is  the  white  heron  from 
which  are  obtained  valuable  egrets,  used  in  trimming 
ladies'  hats.  The  heron  is  in  danger  of  extermination  on 
account  of  the  numbers  that  are  shot  for  this  purpose 
every  year.  Our  Congress  has  set  a  good  example  to  the 
rest  of  the  world  by  passing  a  law  preventing  their  im- 
portation into  this  country.  There  are  also  the  flamingo 
with  its  great  breadth  of  wing,  the  scarlet  ibis,  and  the 
rose-colored  spoonbill.  In  places  a  less  valuable  kind  of 
heron  as  well  as  many  other  kinds  of  birds  are  found  in 


MOUNTAINS   AND   LLANOS   OF   VENEZUELA     333 

great  "heronries"  which  are  sometimes  miles  in  extent 
and  include  crane,  stork,  ibis,  and  other  kinds  of  birds  of 
many  colors  from  gray  to  a  brilliant  scarlet.  There  is  also 
a  small  duck,  the  guiriri,  so  called  from  its  cry,  and  which 
at  times  rises  in  such  numbers  as  almost  to  obscure  the  sun. 

Along  the  banks  of  the  streams,  especially  of  the  middle 
Orinoco,  there  are  also  to  be  found  great  numbers  of 
turtles.  Some  of  them  are  three  feet  long  and  weigh 
seventy  pounds.  They  lay  great  numbers  of  eggs,  from 
which  are  obtained  every  year  about  twenty  thousand 
gallons  of  oil. 

One  of  the  tributaries  of 'the  Orinoco  is  called  the  Tor- 
tuga,  which  means  turtle,  a  name  given  to  it  on  account 
of  the  large  number  of  turtles  that  live  on  its  banks  during 
the  months  of  March  and  April.  The  long  sloping  sand 
banks  are  their  favorite  "nesting  places,  and  to  those 
places  the  natives  go  in  canoes  to  collect  eggs  and  to 
kill  the  turtles  for  their  shells,  which  are  used  as  basins 
and  cooking  pots  in  many  Venezuelan  households. 

In  the  rivers  are  to  be  found  the  manatee  and  the  giant 
otter,  besides  fish  of  many  kinds.  Some  of  the  fish  are  of 
curious  forms  and  habits.  There  are  electric  eels  of  great 
size  with  a  battery  strong  enough  to  give  a  powerful 
electric  shock  to  men  who  attempt  to  cross  the  streams 
by  wading  or  swimming  or  to  horses  that  come  down 
into  the  shallow,  muddy  pools  of  water  to  drink.  There 
is  the  paillara,  somewhat  like  the  salmon,  but  with  large 
tusks  working  through  horny  nostrils  and  a  dangerous 
looking  row  of  teeth  behind  the  nostrils.  The  most 
dreaded  of  all  is  the  caribe,  a  bloodthirsty  creature  with 
a  head  somewhat  like  that  of  a  bulldog  and  with  a  pro- 
jecting lower  jaw.  It  has  sharp  three-edged  teeth  with 
which  it  can  break  the  strongest  fishhook.  Large  num- 
bers of  this  fish  quickly  gather  round  and  kill  the  weaker 


334     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

animals  that  cross  the  stream,  and  will  even  attack 
wounded  alligators  as  well  as  the  crocodile. 

Among  the  reptiles  of  the  Orinoco  valley  which  are 
feared  by  man  the  huge  anaconda  or  water  snake  is  most 
important.  There  is  also  the  boa  constrictor,  which  lives 
in  the  woods  and  eats  wild  animals  such  as  deer  or  even 
tame  calves  and  colts  that  stray  into  its  haunts.  A  very 
poisonous  species  of  snake  is  the  mapanare,  which  lies 
coiled  up  on  the  branches  overhanging  the  river  and  strikes 
quickly  downward  at  animals  passing  beneath. 

Of  the  other  animals  of  the  Orinoco  lowlands  per- 
haps the  most  interesting  is  the  jaguar,  which  makes  its 
home  in  the  dense  forests  and  is  held  in  great  dread 
by  the  country  people.  Each  year  lives  are  lost  on 
account  of  the  ravages  of  this  fierce  beast.  The  puma  is 
a  cowardly  animal  as  compared  with  the  jaguar.  It 
makes  its  home  in  the  hills  and  is  little  feared.  The 
haunts  of  the  great  gray  tapir,  the  water-hog,  and  the 
peccary  are  the  wet  jungles  along  the  river  banks.  In 
the  grasslands  beside  the  river  are  hundreds  of  the  small 
savanna  deer.  These  come  out  of  the  forest  morning  and 
evening  to  feed  on  the  sweet  savanna  grass,  though  it  is 
hard  to  approach  them,  for  they  are  extremely  wary  and 
as  timid  as  mice.  In  the  forest  patches  scattered  through- 
out the  savanna  country  or  the  llanos,  and  along  the 
streams,  are  to  be  found  monkeys;  but  these  are  rather 
scarce  now  since  they  are  so  constantly  hunted  by  the 
Indians  for  food.  Few  animals  that  the  Indian  of  the 
llanos  hunts  are  so  delicious  to  his  taste  as  monkey. 

The  Forest  Lands  along  the  River.  Among  the  trees 
of  the  llanos  region  are  many  which  serve  the  needs  of 
man.  The  palm  flourishes  here  greatly  to  man's  benefit. 
One  kind  is  called  "thatch-palm"  by  the  settlers  and 
ranchmen,  who  use  it  in  making  a  thatch  or  roof  for 


MOUNTAINS  AND   LLANOS  OF  VENEZUELA     335 

their  houses  (Fig.  174) ;  it  is  called  "hat-palm"  by  the  hat 
makers,  who  braid  it  into  sombreros;  and  it  is  called 


Courtesy  of  Hiram  Bingham 

FIG.  174.     Typical  ranch  house  on  the  llanos  of  Venezuela 

"fan-palm"  by  travelers,  who  use  its  leaves  to  drive  away 
the  troublesome  insects.  Then  there  is  a  tree  called  the 
mimosa  which  is  like  the  willow  and  spreads  aloft  a 
delicate  feathery  crown  like  a  dainty  parasol.  In  some 
of  the  valleys  bordering  the  plains  are  mahogany,  cedar, 
rubber  trees,  and  cinchona  of  several  kinds.  The  upper 
waters  of  the  Guaniamo  are  so  affected  by  the  sarsaparilla 
growing  in  great  numbers  along  its  banks  that  the  people 
who  live  in  the  valley  drink  the  water  and  bathe  in  it  in 
order  to  cure  themselves  of  skin  diseases,  of  which  they 
have  many  kinds. 

The  Region  of  Woods.  Southern  Venezuela  is  called 
by  the  natives  La  zona  de  los  basques,  which  means  "the 
region  of  the  woods."  It  will  be  worth  while  to  see  in 
what  respects  its  life  differs  from  that  of  the  plains.  It  is 
but  little  known  and  has  a  thin  population,  but  it  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  certainly  one  of  the  most 
mysterious  parts  of  the  country  and  holds  many  wonders 
that  tempt  the  traveler.  Here  are  forests  so  vast  and  so 
dense  that  men  can  travel  through  the  region  only  by 


336     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

following  the  water  courses.  Back  from  the  river  lanes 
the  vegetation  is  so  thick  that  man  can  hardly  cut  his  way 
through  it.  Even  the  Indians  that  dwell  in  the  gloomy 
depths  of  the  forest  or  on  the  banks  of  the  rivers  that 
thread  through  its  great  jungles  know  but  little  about 
it  except  that  it  is  the  home  of  the  wild  beasts  which 
they  hunt  for  food ;  they  believe  also  that  in  its  shadowy 
depths  dwell  evil  spirits  that  lie  in  wait  for  the  unwary. 

The  People  of  the  Forest.  The  men  who  dwell  in  the 
tropical  forest  of  southern  Venezuela  are  few  in  number 
and  follow  the  life  of  the  hunter.  They  have  all  sorts  of 
superstitions  about  the  hills  and  valleys.  Demons  live 
among  the  inaccessible  crags  of  the  mountains  of  the 
south  and  cause  the  thunder,  the  lightning,  and  the 
wind.  Upon  one  of  the  mountains  their  legends  have 
placed  a  large  lake  so  deep  that  it  cannot  be  fathomed, 
and  its  waters  are  believed  to  be  the  abode  of  huge  and 
strange  creatures  not  found  elsewhere. 

A  peculiarity  of  these  people  of  the  forest,  living  as 
they  do  far  from  neighbors,  is  their  differences  of  speech 
from  place  to  place.  Each  village  has  its  distinct  dialect, 
and  this  is  true  even  in  the  case  of  a  small  village.  Yet 
it  is  a  perfectly  natural  effect  of  the  kind  of  country  in 
which  these  people  dwell.  It  seems  to  be  due  to  the  lack 
of  any  easy  means  of  travel  and  trade.  The  forest  is  so 
dense  and  vast  that  it  keeps  people  apart,  and  wherever 
this  happens  anywhere  in  the  world  each  group  becomes 
unlike  its  neighbors.  Small  differences  spring  up  and 
grow  until  a  separate  dialect  is  developed.  Neighboring 
villages  have  long-standing  blood  feuds,  and  their  bitter 
quarrels  have  added  to  the  effect  of  the  forest  and  increased 
the  differences  not  only  of  speech  but  also  of  manner. 

The  Scattered  People  of  the  Caura  Valley.  The  great 
Caura  tributary  that  rises  within  the  mountain  systems 


MOUNTAINS   AND    LLANOS   OF  VENEZUELA     337 


of  southern.  Venezuela  flows  through  dense  forests  and  the 
wildest  mountain  country  and  at  last  comes  out  upon  the 


Conrtosy  of  Hiram  Ringham 

FIG.  175.     Canoe  on  the  Magdalena  loaded  with  bananas 

plains  that  border  the  Orinoco.  During  the  rainy  season 
small  steamers  may  go  up  the  Caura  for  some  distance ;  but 
it  is  impossible  for  them  to  go  beyond  Temblador,  where 
the  journey  becomes  dangerous  for  dugout  canoes.  For 
forty  or  fifty  miles  the  country  is  a  rolling  grass-covered 
plain,  bordered  by  belts  or  patches  of  forest  in  the  low 
ground  and  along  the  streams.  The  entire  region  is 
thinly  populated.  With  the  exception  of  Maripa  few  of 
the  places  can  be  called  even  villages;  they  are  merely 
clearings  where  rice,  sugar  cane,  bananas,  potatoes,  and 
yams  are  grown,  and  where  one  may  find  a  house  or  two, 
the  home  of  the  settler  to  whom  the  little  plantation 
belongs.  The  people  do  business  in  tonka  beans,  cedar, 
and  copaiba  oil.  Some  years  ago  tonka  beans  brought 
as  much  as  four  dollars  a  pound  and  collecting  them 

22 


SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY  READER 

became  the  principal  business  of  the  people,  but  to-day 
the  price  is  very  low  and  the  people  have  turned  to  the 
raising  of  rice  as  their  principal  means  of  livelihood. 
This  they  ship  to  Ciudad  Bolivar. 

The  Indians  of  the  Caura.  On  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Caura  the  Indians  appear,  first  those  that  depend  partly 
upon  agriculture  for  food  and  live  in  clearings  in  the  forest 
and  then  Indians  that  live  by  hunting  and  fishing.  The 
little  Indian  farms  of  the  clearings  are  worked  in  the 
most  simple  way.  Corn  is  planted  in  a  hole  made  by 
thrusting  a  sharp  stick  into  the  ground.  Some  cotton  is 
grown  and  is  employed  in  making  hammocks,  which  the 
Indians  use  almost  entirely  as  sleeping  places.  Even 
those  Indians  that  till  the  ground  get  a  part  of  their  food 
supply  from  forest  and  stream.  They  are  expert  fisher- 
men with  the  bow  and  arrow  and  also  use  the  hook  and 
line.  All  game  which  they  keep  from  one  day  to  the  next 
is  smoked.  When  food  happens  -to  be  plentiful  they  eat 
a  great  deal,  frequently  getting  up  in  the  night  to  eat,  and 
when  there  is  no  food  on  hand  they  go  hungry.  In  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  clearings,  game  is  scarce, 
but  now  and  then  a  tapir  is  killed,  or  a  wild  hog  or  peccary, 
when  he  visits  the  garden,  but  this  does  not  happen  often. 

The  Wild  Mountain  Country  of  the  South.  Along  the 
southern  border  of  Venezuela  are  the  mountains  of  the 
Serra  Pacaraima  and  Serra  Parima.  This  is  the  southern 
frontier  of  Venezuela,  where  only  wild  savages  dwell, 
a  little-known  and  mysterious  land  into  which  the  white 
settler  will  not  venture  for  many  years  to  come.  It  is 
the  land  of  crag  and  wild  beast,  of  forest  and  savage 
Indian.  When  the  Commission  appointed  to  lay  down 
the  boundary  between  Venezuela  and  Brazil  in  1880- 
1883  did  their  field  work  they  did  not  even  visit  the 
Parima  and  Pacaraima  highland;  they  merely  guessed 


MOUNTAINS    AND   LLANOS   OF   VENEZUELA     339 

at  the  positions  of  the  mountain  crests  and  drew  their 
boundary  lines  accordingly. 

Coastal  Features  and  Harbors.  The  interior  of  Vene- 
zuela is  not  easy  to  reach  from  the  sea  on  account  of  the 
obstacles  which  lie  along  its  coast.  The  Orinoco  delta 
—low,  hot,  marshy,  bordered  by  mangrove  swamps,  and 
without  products  useful  to  man — stretches  along  the 
eastern  coast  for  seven  hundred  miles,  almost  as  far  as 
from  Charleston  to  New  York.  Along  the  northern 
coast  a  range  of  mountains  borders  the  shore,  and  its 
steep  slopes  descend  to  sea  level,  offering  only  a  few  havens 
where  ships  may  lie  safely  at  anchor  and  load  and 
unload  their  cargoes.  One  coast  is  too  low  and  the  other 
too  high;  one  is  too  flat,  the  other  too  steep;  one  has 
abundant  channels  to  the  interior  where  the  interior  is  of 
least  use  to  man ;  the  other  has  no  natural  harbors  where 
harbors  are  sorely  needed,  for  most  of  the  present  wealth 
of  Venezuela  is  to  be  found  along  the  north  shore  and  the 
country  bordering  the  southern  edge  of  the  coast  ranges. 
The  only  stream  in  all  Venezuela  that  is  navigable  from 
the  sea,  besides  the  Orinoco  and  a  few  of  its  longest 
branches,  is  the  Catatumbo,  which  empties  into  the  Gulf 
or  Lake  of  Maracaibo  on  the  northwestern  coast.  It  and 
its  chief  tributary,  the  Zulia  River,  are  navigable  by  small 
steamers  throughout  the  year.  Even  this  river  system, 
small  as  it  is,  belongs  practically  in  part  to  Colombia,  for 
it  is  through  the  upper  valley  that  the  Colombians  of 
the  province  of  Magdalena  find  their  way  to  the  sea  for 
travel  and  the  shipment  of  goods. 

The  "Little  Venice"  of  Venezuela.  The  only  deep 
embayment  along  the  whole  coast  of  Venezuela  is  the  Gulf 
of  Maracaibo  to  which  the  Catatumbo  is  tributary.  But 
if  Venezuela  has  no  good  natural  harbors  on  account  of 
the  mountains  and  the  delta,  and  if  her  inlets  are  few  in 


340    SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY   READER 

number,  she  has  at  least  the  distinction  of  having  the 
largest  inlet  on  the  entire  northern  coast  of  South  America : 
the  Gulf  of  Maracaibo.  It  should  really  be  called  a  lake 
because  its  waters  are  fresh,  a  condition  due  partly  to  the 
large  amount  of  rain  that  falls  upon  the  seaward  slopes  of 
the  coast  ranges  and  is  carried  down  to  the  Maracaibo 
by  its  many  tributaries  and  partly  also  to  the  fact  that 
at  the  mouth  of  the  lake  there  is  a  huge  sand  bar  which 
practically  keeps  out  the  tides  and  prevents  the  salt  and 
the  fresh  water  from  being  mixed.  The  "Sack  of  Vene- 
zuela," as  the  gulf  is  called,  has  an  area  as  great  as  the 
state  of  Rhode  Island — nine  thousand  square  miles. 

At  this  point  on  the  coast  of  Venezuela  there  is  also  an 
outer  embayment,  the  Gulf  of  Venezuela.  Sometimes  it 
is  called  the  Gulf  of  Venice  for  a  rather  interesting  reason. 
When  Hojeda  and  Vespucci,  two  Spanish  explorers  who 
sailed  the  coast  of  Venezuela  in  1499,  first  came  in  sight 
of  the  outer  gulf  they  found  there  a  group  of  water- 
houses,  or  dwellings  on  piles  with  waterways  between 
the  rows  of  dwellings,  and  canoes  tied  to  the  posts.  The 
picture  seemed  to  them  very  much  like,  that  at  Venice 
where  the  houses  are  built  on  the  water's  edge  and  the 
canals  are  used  in  place  of  streets,  and  where  every  one 
makes  his  way  about  in  gondolas.  So  they  called  the 
place  "Little  Venice,"  and  the  inlet  for  a  time  was  indeed 
called  Venice.  Little  Venice  is  translated  in  the  Spanish 
"Venezuela,"  a  pretty  name  that  soon  spread  to  the 
whole  region.  This  was  the  name  given  to  the  Spanish 
colony  of  the  place,  and  when  the  colony  became  inde- 
pendent through  the  work  of  Bolivar  and  others,  the 
republic  they  formed  was  called  Venezuela. 

Since  the  Gulf  or  Lake  of  Maracaibo  is  the  natural  outlet 
of  a  large  region  which  includes  not  only  part  of  Venezuela 
but  also  a  portion  of  Colombia,  a  large  town  has  grown 


MOUNTAINS   AND    LLANOS  OF   VENEZUELA     341 

up  through  which  the  business  of  the  country  is  done. 
This  is  the  town  and  port  of  Maracaibo,  built  on  the  shore 
of  the  channel  connecting  the  outer  and  inner  bays.  It 
is  the  chief  port  whence  are  sent  the  coffee  grown  on  the 
hillside  plantations,  the  cacao  from  the  lowlands  about  the 
shores  of  the  bay,  the  cattle  and  hides  from  the  ranches 
of  the  hills  and  mountain  valleys  that  rim  the  gulf  and 
the  grasslands  that  stretch  south  of  them,  the  minerals 
that  are  mined  in  the  mountains  roundabout,  and  all  the 
other  produce  of  the  region.  Here  are  also  found  even 
to-day  pile  dwellings  like  those  that  gave  the  name  to  the 
region  and  still  lend  a  peculiar  aspect  to  the  place.  In 
the  life  of  the  Maracaibo  streets  there  is  a  curious  mixture 
of  speech  and  habit.  The  old  dwellers  on  the  shore  are 
still  here,  and  here  too  are  the  Indian  of  the  uplands, 
the  Spanish  planter  and  ranchman,  and  French  and 
German  merchants  with  their  stock  of  imported  goods 
for  shipment  to  the  interior. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  GUIANAS:  THE  ONLY  EUROPEAN 
COLONIES  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Three  Guianas.  Upon  the  northeastern  shore  of 
South  America  are  three  colonies  of  special  interest  be- 
cause they  are  the  sole  mainland  possessions  of  European 
countries  on  the  continent.  They  are  the  Guianas — 
English,  French,  and  Dutch  Guiana.  We  hear  little  about 
them  in  this  country,  for  they  are  not  generally  visited 
by  tourists  as  is  the  case  with  most  other  countries  of 
South  America.  They  have  had  a  rather  complex  political 
history,  having  changed  hands  several  times  after  the 
close  of  one  or  another  European  war.  One  may,  however, 
find  in  them  many  things  of  interest:  beautiful  landscapes, 
great  waterfalls,  curious  peoples,  and  large  towns. 

Where  the  People  Live.  While  the  Guianas  are  of 
considerable  size,  they  are  so  hot  and  unhealthful  that 
few  white  people  live  in  them,  and  these  for  the  most 
part  live  along  the  coast  and  the  banks  of  the  rivers. 
More  than  nine  tenths  of  all  the  people  live  on  the  low, 
hot,  fever-stricken  plains  within  four  or  five  miles  of 
the  sea.  Only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles 
are  under  cultivation  in  British  Guiana,  about  sixty-five 
square  miles  in  Dutch  Guiana,  and  but  fifteen  square  miles 
in  French  Guiana.  French  Guiana  has  been  used  for 
many  years  as  a  penal  station  to  which  are  banished  con- 
victs from  France  sentenced  to  more  than  eight  years' 
hard  labor  (Fig.  176).  The  most  successful  of  the  three 
colonies  is  British  Guiana,  with  a  white  population  of 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million.  Dutch  Guiana  comes 

342 


THE  GUIANAS 


343 


i 


next,  with  a  population   of  eighty-five  thousand,  while 
French  Guiana  numbers  but  thirty  thousand  people. 

The  Swamps  and  Dikes 
of  Guiana.  The  lowland 
portion  of  Guiana  is  from 
thirty  to  fifty  miles  wide 
and  extends  landward  as 
an  alluvial  plain  in  which 
the  streams  deposit  clays 
and  sands,  and  great 
masses  of  tangled  vegeta- 
tion, that  come  floating 
down  from  the  forest-bor- 
dered banks  farther  up 
stream.  The  outer  shore 
is  bordered  by  mangroves 
and  courida  bushes  in  very 
much  the  same  way  as 
these  water-loving  plants 
border  the  outer  shores  of 
the  delta  of  the  Orinoco 
and  the  banks  of  all  the 
streams.  About  the  mat- 
ted roots  of  the  tangled 
mangroves,  water-loving 
sedges  take  root,  and  these 
and  the  roots  themselves 
clog  the  rivers  and  make 
them  deposit  their  silt, 
gradually  building  up  the 
bottom  until  a  tract  form- 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  176.     Convicts  on  the  way  to 
work,  Cayenne,  French  Guiana 


erly  under  water  is  made  into  marsh  and  finally  into  land. 

The  courida  bush  has  a  great  mass  of  club-like  roots 

projecting  above  the  bottom  muds  and  anchored  in  them. 


344     SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

Neither  the  hot  sunshine  at  low  tide  when  the  roots  are 
exposed  to  the  air,  nor  the  salt  water  at  high  tide,  have 
any  bad  effect  upon  the  plant,  though  such  extremes 
would  destroy  an  ordinary  tree.  But  if  a  planter  cuts 
down  the  courida  or  the  mangroves  to  let  in  the  cool 
breeze,  the  sea  gnaws  away  at  the  roots  until  they  are 
destroyed  and  then  invades  the  land. 

Upon  the  flat  lowland  the  English,  Dutch,  and  French 
have  laid  out  plantations  of  sugar,  rice,  and  tropical 
fruits.  The  narrow  strip  of  land  along  the  coast  on 
which  these  plantations  are  found  is  not  more  than 
eight  or  ten  miles  wide.  The  traveler  to  Dutch  Guiana 
is  surprised  at  the  sight  of  certain  features  which  are 
thought  more  characteristic  of  the  Netherlands  than  of 
the  Guianas  of  South  America.  The  land  lies  so  low 
that  it  is  constantly  threatened  by  the  sea,  and  the 
people  have  at  great  expense  built  a  sea  dike  for  the 
protection  of  their  homes.  But  the  defenses  of  the  Dutch 
have  not  always  been  successful.  At  one  time  the 
settlement  of  Nickerie  on  the  Corentyn  River  had 
streets  lined  with  stores,  public  buildings,  and  churches. 
But  bit  by  bit  the  land  was  torn  away  and  one  house 
after  another  carried  off,  until  finally  even  the  gardens 
back  of  the  town  were  invaded,  and  to-day  only  a  small 
part  of  Nickerie  remains. 

The  lowland  rivers  wind  about  in  the  most  erratic 
manner  before  they  reach  the  sea.  In  many  cases  the 
narrow  necks  of  land  between  river  curves  have  been 
connected  by  short,  deep,  and  navigable  canals  built 
with  the  painstaking  care  for  which  the  Dutch  are  famous, 
creeks  and  canals  completing  an  intricate  system  of 
waterways  which  combine  the  features  of  Venice  and 
Holland. 

Except  for  a  few  diamonds  and  a  little  rubber  and 


THE  GUIANAS 


345 


valuable  wood,  from  the  interior,  the  products  of  the 
Guianas  come  wholly  from  the  alluvial  lands  near  the  sea. 
Sugar  (Fig.  177)  has  always  been  the  most  important 
export  together  with  the  related  products,  molasses  and 
rum.  Coffee  was  produced  at  one  time  in  large  amounts, 
but  its  production  has  never  compared  with  that  of 
the  great  coffee  countries.  The  lowlands  are  admirably 
suited  for  rice,  which  requires  repeated  flooding  and 
increasing  quantities  of  fine  quality  are  raised,  besides 
sea-island  cotton.  The  chief  difficulty  arises  from  an 
occasional  drought.  For  example,  in  1911-1912  the  rain- 
fall was  so  scant  that  but  fifty  per  cent  of  the  average 
amount  of  sugar  was  exported  and  the  rice  crop  of  March 
and  April  was  a  complete  failure.  Dutch  Guiana  also 
produces  important  quantities  of  tropical  fruit  and 
French  Guiana  exports  cacao,  besides  sugar  and  coffee. 
The  Savannas  and  Mountains  of  the  Interior.  Inland 
from  the  low  coastal  strip  of  the  Guianas  are  the  savannas 


FIG.  177.     Laborers1  dwellings  on  a  sugar  plantation  in  British  Guiana 


346     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

or  grassy  plains  like  the  llanos  of  Venezuela,  and  with 
somewhat  the  same  kind  of  life.  Farther  inland  are 
the  mountains  and  low  plateaus,  the  most  famous  and 
the  highest  of  which  is  Roraima  (8,635  feet),  in  British 
Guiana,  a  great  sandstone  table  with  bordering  rock 
walls  three  thousand  feet  high,  the  first  half  of  the 
descent  being  vertical.  From  the  top  of  this  table 
mountain  there  fall  several  small  streams  which  are  far 
and  away  the  highest  waterfalls  on  the  earth  —  sixteen 
hundred  feet.  So  high,  indeed,  are  these  wonderful 
cascades  that  long  before  the  water  reaches  the  foot  of 
the  cliff  it  is  blown  into  thousands  of  ribbons  of  spray. 

The  most  famous  of  all  the  great  falls  of  the  mountain 
country  are  the  Kaieteur  Falls  in  the  Potaro  valley  with 
a  drop  of  seven  hundred  and  forty-one  feet — more  than 
four  times  as  high  as  Niagara.  So  deep  is  the  gorge  into 
which  the  great  river  tumbles  that  only  now  and  then 
does  a  sound  come  out  of  the  depths  other  than  the 
subdued  rumble  that  may  be  heard  at  all  times.  When 
the  wind  blows  from  below,  a  deep  roar  comes  up  from 
the  river-worn  caverns.  The  spray  rising  from  the  falls 
waters  the  gorge  walls  copiously  and  supports  a  brilliant 
green  moss  which  lends  a  dash  of  color  to  the  otherwise 
somber  Guiana  forest. 

The  Animals  of  the  Coastal  Swamps.  In  the  swarnpy 
districts  of  the  coast  are  found  the  marsh  deer,  and  the  wild 
dog  which  hunts  in  large  packs  like  the  wolves  of  northern 
countries.  In  common  with  other  regions  in  South 
America,  the  lowlands  of  Guiana  are  also  the  home  of  tapirs 
(Fig.  178)  and  several  kinds  of  peccaries  that  travel  about 
in  herds  of  a  hundred  or  more,  and  are  sometimes  danger- 
ous to  man.  Here  also  are  found  the  bell  bird,  with  a 
musical  note  that  sounds  like  two  iron  bars  struck  to- 
gether ;  and  the  quow ,  which  is  about  the  size  of  a  pigeon 


THE  GUIANAS 


347 


and  makes  a  deep,  low  sound  like  the  lowing  of  a  calf, 
and  is  generally  called  the  "calf  bird."  Millions  of  water- 
fowl of  many  kinds  live  on  the  river  banks  and  find  their 
food  in  the  muddy  water  of  the  rivers  or  in"  the  tangled 
depths  of  the  forest  far  from  man.  The  coast  meadows 
literally  swarm  with  the  wild  fowl  of  the  country.  The 
great  white  heron,  the  ibis,  the  egret,  and  the  spurwing 
occur  in  thousands,  and  almost  every  bush  and  tree 
has  its  birds  of  prey  that  sit  and  plume  themselves  by 
the  hour. 

Besides  these  birds  are  others  commonly  found  in 
tropical  regions  and  especially  in  tropical  South  America. 
Among  them  are  parrots,  macaws,  chatterers,  humming 
birds,  vultures,  hawks,  and  owls.  Almost  all  of  them  are 
noted  for  their  brilliant  plumage,  which  is  most  attractive 
in  contrast  to  the  greens  and  browns  of  the  dense  tropical 
foliage.  But  the  birds  of  the  tropics,  however  beautiful 
they  appear  to  the  eye,  are  not  attractive  to  the  ear; 


FIG.  178.     Tapir  and  young,  one  of  the  wild  animals  found  in 
British  Guiana 


348     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

their  notes  are  coarse  or  guttural  and  in  place  of  the 
musical  tones  of  our  northern  birds  one  hears  only  sharp, 
shrill  calls  or  loud,  booming,  throaty  tones. 

The  Migratory  Indians  of  the  Savannas.  When  the 
white  man  came  to  Guiana  he  found  the  country  overrun 
by  scattered  tribes  of  Indians;  but  to-day  the  Indian 
people  are  confined  almost  wholly  to  the  interior.  They 
have  not  gotten  on  well  with  the  whites  and  under  harsh 
treatment  have  fled  farther  and  farther  from  the  coast. 
Upon  the  interior  savannas,  the  grasslands  of  Guiana, 
they  still  live  in  tribes  and  maintain  nomadic  habits, 
a  peculiar  religion,  and  strange  social  customs.  They 
roam  about  at  pleasure,  although  each  tribe  when  hunt- 
ing confines  itself  to  a  district  that  is  not  claimed  by 
any  other  tribe  in  the  country.  They  live  as  best  they 
can  in  rough  shelters  such  as  may  be  made  from  huge 
palms,  whose  broad,  flat  leaves  can  be  fastened  together 
with  little  difficulty  as  a  protection  from  the  rain.  Their 
shelter  is  but  slightly  better  than  that  of  the  wild  beasts 
they  hunt  for  food.  The  only  furniture  they  have  are 
hammocks  of  their  own  making,  which  they  use  alike  for 
sitting  and  for  sleeping.  It  is  the  business  of  the  men  to 
hunt  and  fish,  and  of  the  women  to  cultivate  the  cassava, 
to  weave  the  hammocks,  prepare  the  food,  and  brew  the 
drink.  A  stop  is  made  in  one  place  only  long  enough  for 
a  crop  to  be  grown  or  until  the  game  fails,  when  they 
embark  in  their  rough  canoes  and  search  the  rivers  for 
some  other  hunting  site. 

The  River  Names.  Every  river  and  waterfall  of  the 
Indian  country  has  its  unseen  deity  and  all  the  rivers  are 
named  from  the  kind  of  game  found  in  them  or  from  some 
striking  characteristic  which  first  impressed  the  people. 
One  stream  is  called  Macaw  Creek,  for  the  macaw  is  found 
there  in  greater  numbers  than  is  any  other  tropical  bird. 


THE  GUIANAS  349 

Another  is  called  Tapir  Creek,  another  the  Silk-cotton 
Creek,  another  the  Creek  of  Flies  and  Mosquitos,  another 
Snake  Creek,  and  still  another  was  called  after  the  peculiar 
note  of  the  frogs  that  inhabit  it  in  great  numbers.  While 
the  Indian  names  appear  to  us  to  have  a  very  foolish  sound, 
they  are  full  of  meaning  to  the  natives  and  of  downright 
value  in  their  hunting  expeditions.  Hardly  a  game  bird, 
beast,  or  fish  can  be  mentioned  whose  name  has  not  been 
used  in  the  naming  of  some  creek  or  river  or  mountain 
brook  in  the  Guianas. 

Other  streams  were  named  for  the  fruits  on  their  shores, 
the  nuts,  wild  plums,  and  pineapples  gathered  there  for 
food.  The  Indians  have  not  named  a  single  stream  for 
a  person.  It  always  bears  some  name  which  indicates 
what  sort  of  a  stream  it  is,  what  kind  of  food  may  be 
found  there,  whether  it  is  easy  or  difficult  to  travel,  or 
if  it  is  known  for  its  wild  beasts  and  snakes. 

Even  the  largest  river  of  the  Guianas  bears  an  Indian 
name  to  which  the  Indians  at  one  time  attached  signifi- 
cance. The  name  means  in  the  Indian  language  "The 
River  of  Fire  Stones,"  and  is  founded  upon  a  story  to  the 
effect  that  a  fleet  of  canoes  filled  with  Arawak  Indians 
once  sought  shelter  at  its  mouth.  A  heavy  storm  was  en- 
countered and  made  it  necessary  to  turn  the  canoes  back 
behind  some  sheltering  point.  In  turning  up  the  river  most 
of  the  canoes  were  upset.  The  Indians  swam  ashore,  and 
later  recovered  their  canoes,  but  not  their  fire  stones.  The 
fire  stones  are  always  carried  in  the  bottoms  of  the  canoes 
and  are  used  in  supporting  the  pots  in  which  the  Indians 
cook  their  food.  It  is  of  great  importance  to  have  these 
because  the  land  is  so  low  and  flat  that  camp  sites  are  found 
with  great  difficulty ;  and  the  alluvial  river  plains  near  the 
coast  are  of  such  fine  material  that  stones  are  not  found 
there.  They  must  be  brought  oftentimes  from  great 


35°     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A   GEOGRAPHY    READER 

distances,  from  the  uplands  and  mountains  of  the  interior, 
and  are  bought  and  sold  like  ordinary  merchandise.  To 
the  Indians,  the  loss  of  the  fire  stones  is  a  serious  matter, 
quite  as  serious  as  if  a  cooking  pot  or  a  bow  and  arrow  were 
lost,  indeed  more  so,  for  the  latter  can  easily  be  made 
almost  anywhere.  So  the  Arawaks  named  the  river 
"The  River  of  the  Fire  Stones,"  or  the  Essequibo  River, 
and  the  Arawak  word  for  this  phrase  was  adopted  by  the 
whites  and  is  in  use  to-day. 

The  Bush  Negroes  of  the  Forest.  The  "bush  negroes" 
are  a  group  of  people  found  only  in  Dutch  Guiana. 
Their  settlements  extend  from  near  the  French  frontier 
westward  to  about  the  source  of  the  Coppename  River. 
They  are  a  fine-looking  lot  of  people:  many  of  the  men 
are  more  than  six  feet  tall,  with  straight  limbs  and  frank 
countenances.  In  many  respects  they  live  like  the 
negroes  one  may  find  in  the  interior  of  Africa.  They 
cultivate  farms  and  even  engage  to  some  extent  in  the 
lumber  trade. 

The  bush  negroes  were  once  slaves  of  the  Dutch,  but 
there  were  so  many  of  them  in  the  land  that  they  became 
much  stronger  than  their  masters,  and  were  able  to  gain 
their  freedom.  They  ran  away  from  their  owners  by 
thousands  and  were  soon  lost  in  the  dense  forest,  through 
which  their  pursuers  could  travel  only  with  the  greatest 
difficulty.  Once  in  the  forest  they  could  live  as  they  had 
lived  in  Africa,  by  hunting  and  fishing  and  by  cultivating 
the  few  simple  vegetables  upon  which  they  depend  for 
their  supply  of  food.  The  Dutch  were  not  inclined,  how- 
ever, to  sit  idly  by  and  see  their  former  slaves  run  off  into 
the  woods.  They  began  a  series  of  wars  which  lasted 
for  more  than  seventy  years  and  which  cost  not  less  than 
thirty  millions  of  dollars.  In  addition  to  this  great  cost 
in  money  one  must  remember  the  great  loss  in  lives,  the 


THE  GUIANAS  351 

bitter  feeling  the  war  caused  between  the  whites  and  the 
blacks,  and  the  terrible  blow  which  all  these  events  dealt 
to  the  industries  of  the  colony. 

The  Beautiful  Forests  of  the  Guianas.  Nothing  in  the 
Guianas  is  more  impressive  than  the  great  primeval  forest 
as  seen  on  the  banks  of  the  Essequibo  in  British  Guiana. 
One  may  travel  up  the  middte  course  of  this  river  for 
seventy  miles  without  finding  an  opening  except  where 
some  tributary  stream  flows  into  it.  The  profuse  vegeta- 
tion literally  hangs  over  the  surface  of  the  river  like  a 
curtain.  But  if  the  great  South  American  forest  is  impres- 
sive and  imposing,  it  is  at  the  same  time  forbidding.  On 
either  bank  the  vegetation  reaches  to  a  height  of  from  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  to  two  hundred  feet,  the  whole 
forest  being  bound  with  innumerable  creepers  and  trailers 
into  a  mass  that  the  eye  can  scarcely  penetrate.  The 
sunlight  barely  reaches  its  interior,  and  what  there  is  of  it 
appears  in  scattered  patches  of  reflected  light. 

"Now  the  creek  is  almost  closed  by  a  lattice  of  bush- 
ropes  and  then  we  have  to  pass  under  a  leaning  trunk  or 
branch  almost  touching  the  water.  Hundreds  of  cord- 
like  aerial  roots  depend  from  the  topmost  branches  of  the 
trees,  and  have  to  be  moved  aside  as  we  get  among  them, 
while  great  bunches  of  flowers  depend  from  the  creepers, 
which  also  obstruct  the  way  in  some  places. 

"If  the  creek  is  not  kept  open  by  Indians  it  is  often 
choked  by  vegetation.  A  dense  wall  of  creepers  forms  a 
curtain,  and  we  can  only  push  through  by  aid  of  our 
cutlasses,  which  are  always  carried  for  this  purpose  in  bush 
traveling.  Under  water  are  the  remains  of  trees  which 
have  fallen  during  several  centuries.  .  .  .  When  a  giant 
mora  is  undermined  by  the  flood,  and  can  no  longer  be 
supported  by  its  weaker  neighbors,  it  comes  down  with  a 
crash,  carrying  destruction  to  everything  in  its  way.  A 


352     SOUTH   AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY   READER 

score  of  smaller  trees  will  have  their  heads  torn  off  or 
limbs  severed,  and  perhaps  a  hundred  palms,  marantas, 
and  low  bushes  be  smashed  to  pieces."  (Keane.) 

In  traveling  through  British  Guiana  one  is  struck  by 
the  almost  total  absence  of  anything  beyond  the  wall  of 
vegetation  on  either  hand.  Scarcely  a  single  hut  of  any 
kind  may  be  seen  for  miles.  Only  by  looking  closely  at 
the  river  banks  can  one  see,  here  and  there  under  the 
bushes,  a  canoe  or  a  small  boat.  If  one  goes  closer,  he 
finds  a  small  opening;  and  if  the  water  is  low,  a  log  may 
be  seen  lying  on  the  mud;  this  is  the  landing  stage.  By 
means  of  it  one  may  get  ashore  and  find  a  narrow,  muddy 
path  which  leads  through  the  forest  to  a  tiny  hut, 
thatched  with  palm  leaves,  far  back  from  the  river. 

A  City  below  Sea  Level.  The  most  important  city  in 
the  Guianas  is  Georgetown  in  British  Guiana,  with  a 
population  of  fifty  thousand.  The  greater  part  of  it  is 
below  the  level  of  high  tide  so  that  the  houses  are  built  on 
piles.  On  the  whole  it  is  a  very  unhealthful  location  in 
spite  of  the  cool  sea  breezes  that  blow  almost  constantly 
during  the  day.  The  flat  plain  on  which  the  city  is 
built  is  drained  with  great  difficulty.  Through  the  center 
of  many  streets  canals  have  been  dug  and  on  the  placid 
surface  of  the  water  in  them  enormous  Victoria  Regia 
water  lilies  float.  During  a  large  part  of  the  year  the 
rains  are  heavy  and  frequent,  a  condition  which  has 
given  rise  to  the  saying  in  Georgetown  that  it  only  stops 
raining  to  begin  pouring.  Since  the  rains  are  abundant 
and  the  river  water  stagnant  and  unfit  to  drink  the  people 
depend  upon  rain  water  for  drinking  purposes,  gathering 
it  in  cisterns  built  beside  the  houses  so  as  to  catch  the 
drainage  of  the  roof. 

Georgetown  exhibits  a  great  mixture  of  races.  There 
are  negroes  from  Africa,  coolies  from  India,  and  native 


THE  GUI  AN  AS  353 

Indians,  besides  Portuguese,  Chinese,  English,  Spanish, 
Jewish,  and  Dutch.  The  coolies  were  brought  over  from 
India  to  work  on  the  sugar  plantations  just  outside  of 
Georgetown,  for  at  one  time  the  production  of  sugar  was 
a  great  industry  here  but  declined  chiefly  on  account  of 
the  liberation  of  the  slaves. 

A  short  distance  outside  Georgetown  the  country 
becomes  wild,  and  a  thick  jungle  borders  the  banks  of  the 
rivers.  With  the  exception  of  a  short  railway  line  the 


Courtesy  of  W.  D.  Boyce 

FIG.  1 79.  A  view  of  Paramaribo,  the  capital  of  Dutch  Guiana 
only  means  of  communication  is  by  boats  of  all  sorts 
along  the  courses  of  the  various  lagoons,  creeks,  and 
rivers.  For  some  distance  inland  the  streams  have 
gentle  currents  and  the  ocean  tides  run  far  upstream — on 
the  Demarara  for  about  ninety  miles.  Soon,  however, 
the  river  boats  reach  a  more  rugged  country  with  a 
series  of  great  waterfalls  around  whose  deep  gorges  and 
foaming  cascades  every  pound  of  merchandise  must  be 
taken  on  men's  backs  with  great  labor.  At  many  of 
them  are  towns  of  some  importance  where  a  carrying 
trade  for  the  river  merchants  has  sprung  up. 

Cayenne,   the  capital  of  French  Guiana,  and  Para- 
maribo (Fig.  179),  the  capital  of  Dutch  Guiana,  are  the 

23 


354     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 

only  other  cities  in  the  Guianas.  All  other  centers  of  pop- 
ulation are  mere  villages  beside  the  rivers  and  canals  or 
on  the  few  footpaths  and  poor  trails  that  lead  toward 
the  interior.  The  village  populations  rarely  exceed  a 
thousand;  and  a  few  dozen  or  a  few  hundred  are  much 
more  common.  Cayenne  has  thirteen  thousand  five 
hundred  people  and  Paramaribo  has  thirty-four  thousand, 
or  about  one  third  and  one  half  of  the  total  population  of 
French  and  Dutch  Guiana,  respectively.  Both  are  on  the 
fringe  of  the  land.  Cayenne  is  on  an  island  of  the  same 
name  and  Paramaribo  is  near  the  mouth  of  the  Surinam 
River.  Of  the  two,  Paramaribo  is  by  far  the  cleaner  and 
the  more  beautiful.  Both  have  high  temperatures,  are 
built  almost  at  sea  level,  and  are  unhealthful.  They 
represent',  with  Georgetown,  the  climax  of  such  civilization 
as  exists  in  these  strange  and  backward  tropical  colonies 
—all  that  are  left  of  the  once  vast  European  possessions 
in  South  America. 


THE   INDEX 


All  figures  refer  to  pages;  stars  indicate  illustrations  and  maps. 


Aconcagua,  75. 
Acre,  260. 


Agassiz,  Louis, 

Agriculture,  see  Farming. 

Aguirre,  Lope  de,  237. 

Alfalfa,  Argentine,  33,  43*. 

Alpacas,  139. 

Amazon  Basin,  3, 199,  204,  218,  296; 
Indians,  245-253;  rubber  forest, 
251-253;  trade,  265;  turtles,  load- 
ing, 268*. 

Amazon  River,  6,  84,  206,  237-242, 
241*,  269,  297;  canoe  travel  on, 
242*;  drainage,  239;  explorers  of, 
268-269;  length,  241;  settlement  on 
the,  238*;  source,  241;  tributaries, 
239,  241,  264. 

Amazon  Valley,  cacao,  252,  255; 
climate,  242;  forests,  242-245; 
people,  distribution  of,  253;  rainfall, 
241,  242;  rubber,  237,  255-269; 
salt,  264. 

Amazonas,  200. 

Amazonia,  237-269. 

Ambato,  285. 

Ambato-Riobamba  road,  a  country 
housewife  grinding  oats  for  bread  in 
a  home  on,  282*. 

Andes,  3,  6,  29-30,  37,  38,  55,  85,  88*. 
146,  148,  239,  246*,  297,  298,  300, 
308;  mountain  trail  in  the  Maritime, 
88*;  mountain  village  in  the  eastern, 
137*. 

Angostura,  see  Ciudad  Bolivar. 

Animals,  Argentine,  45-46;  Bolivia, 
139,  140-142,  143;  Chile,  78,  79; 
Ecuador,  274,  276;  Guiana,  346-348; 
Peru,  139,  140-142,  143;  Venezuela, 
332-334;  see  also  names  of  animals. 

Antofagasta,  99,  113,  119,  122; 
unloading  merchandise,  123*. 

Antofagasta-Bolivia  railway,  sail-car 
on,  85*. 

Apure  River,  328,  329,  330,  331; 
bongo  on  the,  328*;  junction  of 
tributaries  of,  327*. 

Araucanlans,  173. 

Araucaria,  vegetation  map  between 
pp.  316  and  317*. 

Arequipa,  110;  washing  and  drying 
wool  from  the  Andean  table-lands 
in,  144*. 

Argentine,  3,  6,  11,  27,  29,  34,  35-72, 
75,  192,  198,  215,  216;  alfalfa,  33, 
43*;  animals  of  the  pampas  in, 
45-46;  araucaria  forests,  vegetation 
map,  between  pp.  316  and  317*; 
as  one  of  the  world's  granaries,  48 ; 


borax,  59;  boundary  disputes,  75,  76; 
cattle,  51,  55;  cities,  61-69,  see 
also  names  of  cities;  climate,  41-42, 
59,  60,  71;  coal,  50-51;  copper,  56; 
cowboy,  40*;  181*;  dairying,  52; 
dry  basin  region,  59-60;  exports,  67; 
farming,  38*.  42,  43*;  floods,  42,  70; 
forests,  70,  vegetation  map  between 
pp.  316  and  317*;  fruit,  57;  gauchos 
(cowboys),  46-47,  181*;  goats,  60*; 
gold,  56;  Gran  Chaco,  176-184; 
grasslands,  70-72;  grazing,  36,  41, 
52,  60-61,  71;  homes,  60;  horseback 
riding,  39,  40*;  horses,  52;  iron,  56; 
llamas,  60,  61;  manufactures,  48-50; 
mining,  56-58;  pampas,  37-48; 
population,  35;  ports,  66-68;  que- 
bracho logs,  182*;  railroads,  52*, 
53-56;  rainfall  in  the  pampas,  42; 
ranch,  46*,  47*,  49*;  salt,  37,  59; 
sheep,  46,  52,  60*;  silver,  56;  size, 
35;  squatters,  71;  stream  bed  used 
as  a  road  in  northwestern,  56*; 
sugar,  10,  178*;  transportation, 
53-54;  58-59;  wheat,  48,  50*. 

Arica,  province,  111;  town,  110,  111, 
112,  124,  famous  hill  near,  112*. 

Asuncion,  191;  capital  and  largest 
city  of  Paraguay,  188*. 

Atacama  Desert,  Chaco  cattle,  180*; 
pastoral  nomads  with  flocks  of  sheep 
and  goats  on  western  border,  60*; 
white  sand  drifts,  109*;  wind  ripples 
on  surface  of  a  sand  dune,  86*. 

Atrato  River,  300. 

Aullagas,  133. 

Babahoyo  River,  natives  poling  boat, 

277*. 
Bahia  (Sao  Salvador),  10,  204;  looking 

across  the  bay  from  the  port,  204*; 

one  of  the  coastal  cities  of  Brazil,205*. 
Bahia  Blanca,  68-69. 
Bananas,  266;  Brazil,  213;  Colombia, 

311;  Venezuela,  337. 
Barley,  Bolivia,  155;  Peru,  1S5. 
Barranquilla,  310-311;  harbor  where 

the    river    journey    begins,    302*; 

sewing  class  in  a  school  in,  296*. 
Barrier  reef  of  Brazil,  235-236. 
Batelao,  258-259;  hauling  across  falls 

of  Madeira,  259*;  rubber  unloaded 

from,  257*. 
Bear,  276. 
Belem,  see  Para. 
Bermejo  River,  177,  178. 
Birds  of  the  Argentine  pampas,  44; 

Guiana,  346-347. 


Xlll 


xiv      SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


Black  race,  Races  of  Man,  facing 
p.  317*. 

Blow-gun,  275. 

Boca  de  Cenizas,  311. 

Bodegas,  291-293. 

Bogota,  302,  310,  311-312;  looking 
eastward  from  the  center  of,  309*. 

Bogota  River,  see  Funza. 

Bolivar,  Simon,  328. 

Bolivia,  9, 192,  264;  animals,  134,139, 
140-143,  142*.  148;  barley,  155; 
cactus,  150;  cities,  132,  152-156, 
252*,  see  also  names  of  cities; 
climate,  128,  155,  157-159,  160; 
farming,  135-136;  fishing,  143-145; 
fuel,  149-152;  Gran  Chaco,  176-184; 
grazing,  139-140,  163;  highland 
dwellers,  128-160;  homes,  128,  136, 
153,  160,  250*;  hunting,  142;  Incas, 
161-175;  Indians,  243*.  248-251; 
irrigation,  133-134,  136;  minerals, 
110,  128,  130,  134;  money,  ten-cent 
piece,  141*;  mountain  folk  of  western, 
148-149,  156-160;  mountains,  137*; 
oven,  out-of-door,  151*;  plateau  and 
valley  contrasts,  160;  plateau  of 
western,  158*;  plateau  without  trees, 
136-139;  population,  density  of, 
130*,  132-133;  potatoes,  155;  prod- 
ucts, 155,  163;  railroad,  85*;  relief 
map,  129*;  rubber,  183,  200;  salt, 
138*,  146-148,  148*,  264;  scene  in 
western,  138*;  sheep,  134,  139; 
silver,  128;  "Switzerland  of  South 
America,"  128;  terraced  alluvial 
fans,  134*.  134-136;  wool,  142,  155. 

Bombilla,  216. 

Borax,  Argentine,  59;  Chile,  114, 
115;  Peru,  111. 

Botafogo,  233;  Avenida  Beiro  Mar, 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  231*. 

Boundary  disputes,  Chile  and  Argen- 
tine, 75,  76;  Chile  and  Peru,  110- 
112;  Ecuador,  272;  Incas  and  Span- 
iards, 172-173. 

Boundary  treaty  of  Colombia  and 
Brazil,  298. 

Bravo  River,  65. 

Brazil,  82,  198,  199-236,  264; 
Amazon  Basin,  199,  204,  218; 
animals,  199,  227;  araucaria,  215- 
217,  vegetation  map  between  pp. 
316  and  317*;  bananas,  213;  barrier 
reef,  235-236;  boundary  treaty 
between  Colombia  and,  298;  cacao, 
280;  campos,  211-214;  carnauba, 
229-230;  cattle,  199,  209,  227; 
cities,  205*.  219-220,  219*  222*, 
224*,  230-235,  231*,  232*,  233*, 
234*,  see  also  names  of  cities; 
climate,  201,  204-210,  217,  218, 
220;  coffee,  10,  199*.  210*.  212, 
217-224,  222*,  223*,  224*,  227; 
coffee  district,  218*;  cotton,  227; 
coral,  235;  diamonds,  225;  exports, 
219;  farming,  226-227;  forests,  227, 
vegetation  map  between  pp.  316  and 


317*;  grasses,  209,  212-214;  grazing, 
212,  227;  hurricanes,  207;  Indians, 
202,  215;  iron,  225,  226;  irrigation, 
208;  mining,  199,  224-227;  moun- 
tains, 204-205;  New  Germany  in, 
211;. origin  of  name,  229;  palms, 
213;  people,  202-204;  population, 
200;  railroads,  217,  218;  rainfall, 
206-207;  rice,  212,  214-215;  rubber, 
199;  salt,  230;  size,  200-201;  soil, 
216-217;  sugar,  212,  213,  227,  229; 
tea,  215-217;  tobacco,  227;  wax, 
230;  white  population  in,  203-204; 
winds,  204-205;  wine,  229. 

British  Guiana,  342;  cities,  352-353; 
fruit,  344;  laborers'  dwellings  on  a 
sugar  plantation,  345*;  population, 
342;  rice,  344;  sugar,  344,  353. 

Buenaventura,  306. 

Buenos  Aires,  10,  42,  53,  54,  61-66, 
197;  buildings  and  people,  62-63; 
Central  Market,  63,  64*;  lights  and 
buoys  of  the  river  port,  64-65. 

Bullock  wagons,  53-54. 

Cacao,    Amazon  Valley,    252,    255; 

Brazil,  280;  Ecuador,  11,  278,  280, 

290*,    291;    French    Guiana,    345; 

gathering   pods   at   La    Clementine 

plantation,   12*;  Sao  Thome,  280; 

Venezuela,  329. 
Cactus,  Bolivia,  150;  Peru,  150;  tree, 

from  which  wood  is  obtained,  139*. 
Cajon  Negro  Pass,  34. 
Caldera,  99. 
Caleta  Buena,  113,  122;  railway  line 

up  the  face  of  the  steep  3,000-foot 

bluff  at,  10*. 
Caliche,  beds  of  the  desert,  114-116; 

piles  of  raw  nitrate  or,  116*. 
Callao,  104. 

Camel  of  the  plateau,  140. 
Campana,  68. 
"Canal  del  Mercador,"  66. 
Canoe  fires,  15. 
Canuma  River,  264. 
Cape  Horn,  19. 
Caracas,  5,  317,  318,  319,  328,  331; 

Avenida  del  Sur,  principal  shopping 

street    of,    319*;    University    and 

Academy  of  History,  318*;  view  of, 

317*.     ' 

Caribbean  Sea,  294-295. 
Caribe,  333. 
Carnauba,  229-230. 
Cartagena,  311;  walls  of,  built  in  the 

old  Spanish  days,  310*. 
Catamarca,  56. 
Cataracts,  264. 
Catatumbo  River,  339. 
Cattle,  Argentine,  51-52,  55;  Brazil, 

199,     209,     227;     Colombia,     308; 

Ecuador,  278,  284,  291;  Gran  Chaco, 

176,    180*.    183;    Paraguay,    191; 

Venezuela,  325,  329,  330,  331-332, 

331*. 
Cauca  River,  300,  305. 


THE  INDEX 


XV 


Caura  River,  336-338. 

Cayenne,  353,  354;  convicts  on  the 
way  to  work,  343*. 

Ceara,  droughts  of,  207-208. 

Cedar  trees,  335. 

Cerro  de  Pasco,  242;  silver  mine  that 
enriched  the  Spanish  centuries  ago, 
131*. 

Cerro  Munchique,  299. 

Cesar  River,  301 ;  cattle  ranches  of  the 
valley  of  the,  308. 

Challapata,  llama  caravan  at,  142*. 

Chapare  River,  243*.  248;  Bolivian 
Indian  shooting  fish  in,  249*; 
Indians  and  canoe  on,  243*. 

Charcoal  burning,  292-293. 

Chile,  3,  5,  9,  11,  27,  30,  32,  34,  73- 
127,  192;  animals,  78,  79;  Arica, 
famous  hill  near,  112*;  borax,  114, 
115;  boundary  disputes,  73,  75-76, 
110,  112;  "Christ  of  the  Andes," 
monument  erected  on  boundary  line 
between  Chile  and  the  Argentine, 
after  a  boundary  quarrel  between 
Argentine  and,  76*;  cities,  110-114, 
119-126,  see  also  names  of  cities; 
climate,  6,  73,  77,  80,  86-87,  90, 
114;  coal,  82;  coast  of  northern, 
112-114;  copper,  82,  83;  desert, 
84-127,  86*.  87*.  115*;  earthquakes, 
122-124;  floods,  127;  forests,  80, 
81,  86,  vegetation  map  between  pp. 
316  and  317*;  grazing,  79;  hauling 
water  from  railroad  to  mines,  98*; 
horses,  73;  irrigation,  102*;  minerals, 
82;  nitrate  of  soda,  11,111,114-122, 
114*.  116*,  120*;  people,  73-74; 
products,  101-102;  railroads,  113*, 
122;  rainfall,  93,  127;  salt,  11*; 
scenery,  80-83;  size,  74-75;  street 
scene  in  central,  79*;  valley  of 
central,  73-83;  vineyards,  79,  80*. 

Chilecito,  province,  56-57;  town,  57. 

Chimborazo,  162,  271,  271*. 

Chubut  River,  30,  32,  33. 

Church,  Colonel,  268. 

Cinchona,  335. 

Cipaquira,  298. 

Ciudad  Bolivar  (Angostura),  326, 
328,  330,  338. 

Climate,  mild  belts  of  South  America, 
facing  p.  9*;  rainfall,  mean  annual, 
facing  p.  8*;  rainfall,  mean  January, 
facing  p.  202*;  rainfall,  mean  July, 
facing  p.  203.*;  temperature,  mean 
January,  facing  p.  124*;  tempera- 
ture, mean  July,  facing  p.  125*. 

Cliza  Valley,  133. 

Coal,  Argentine,  50-51 ;  Chile,  82. 

Cochabamba,  133,  136,  155,  175. 

Coffee,  Brazil,  10,  199,  212,  217-224, 
227;  district,  218*;  drying,  Sao 
Paulo,  222*;  Ecuador,  278;  French 
Guiana,  345;  loading  for  U.  S. 
market,  Santos,  224*;  picking,  199*; 
plantation,  210*;  plantations,  vil- 
lages of  the,  222-224;  planting,  220; 


preparing  for  market,  221-222; 
Venezuela,  329;  warehouse,  Santos, 
223*. 

Colastine,  68. 

Colombia,  209,  276,  279,  294-313, 
340;  bananas,  311;  boundary  treaty 
between  Brazil  and,  298;  cattle,  308; 
cities,  305,  308-312,  309*.  see  also 
names  of  cities;  climate,  299-300, 
305,  307,  312;  floods,  305;  forests, 
308;  Indians,  305-308;  llanos  of 
Casanare,  325*;  missionaries,  310; 
mountains,  298-301,  312;  native 
village,  307*;  paramos,  299-300; 
people,  294-313;  physical  features, 
296;  plains,  296-299;  population, 
307;  rainfall,  312;  revolutions,  312- 
313;  rivers,  300,  see  also  names 
of  rivers;  salt,  297-298;  size,  295; 
towns,  308-311;  transportation,  298, 
303*;  volcanoes,  299,  312;  washer- 
women on  the  Magdalena  River, 
near  Barranquilla  in,  295*;  white 
people  in,  306-308. 

Concepcion,  191. 

Conquerors  or  "Conquistadores," 
1-3. 

"Conquest  of  Peru,"  169. 

Conway,  Sir  Martin.  157. 

Copiapo,  82,  83;  central  plaza  at,  74*. 

Copper,  Argentine,  56;  Brazil,  225; 
Chile,  82,  83;  Peru,  108. 

Coral,  235. 

Corcovado,  233. 

Cordillera  de  Choco,  299. 

Cordillera  Real,  156-160,  298. 

Cordoba,  54. 

Corentyn  River,  344. 

Corn,  284. 

Coronet,  82. 

Corrientes,  68;  general  view  of,  69*. 

Cotahuasi,  135. 

Cotopaxi,  270-271. 

Cotton,  Brazil,  227;  of  the  Gran 
Chaco,  176;  Guiana,  345;  Peru,  11, 
92,  94;  picking,  with  Chinese  labor, 
Uitarte,  5*. 

Courida  bush,  343. 

Cowboys,  40*.  181*.  194,  195. 

Cranes,  44. 

Crevaux,  178,  268. 

Crucero  Alto,  109. 

Cuenca,  285. 

Cuyaba,  234. 

Cuzco,  110,  149,  154,  163,  164,  169, 
171,  175;  ancient  capital  of  the  Inca 
Empire,  164*;  church  on  central 
plaza  in,  165*;  donkey  loaded  with 
straw  for  fuel,  on  street,  170*; 
selling  potatoes  in  their  native 
landmarket  before  Jesuit  Church 
and  College,  166*;  twelve-cornered 
stone  in  Inca  palace,  162*;  walls  of 
old  fort,  172*. 

Dawson  Island,  17. 
Deer,  334.  346. 


xvi      SOUTH  AMERICA:    A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


Delta  plains  of  the  Orinoco,  322- 

324. 

Demarara  River,  353. 
Desaguadero  River,  144,  145;  Uros 

Indian  making  a  reed  canoe  on  the 

border  of  the  great  reed  swamp  of, 

146*. 
Desert,    Atacama,    60*,    86*.    109*, 

180*;  of  Chile,  84-127;  Peru,  84-127; 

ports,  91-92,   96-99;  rainfall,   127; 

Tarapaca,   87*,    110-112,    124-127, 

126*;  travel,  87;  vegetation,  84-87, 

map  between  pp.  316  and  317*;  see 

also  oases. 
Diamante,  68. 
Diamantina,  225. 

Diamonds,  Brazil,  225;  Guiana,  344. 
Dog,  wild,  346. 
Dutch  Guiana,  342,  344,  345;  cities, 

353-354;  fruit,  344,  345;  population, 

343;  rice,  344;  sugar,  344. 

Earthquakes,  122-124,  270. 

Ecuador,  192,  209,  270-293;  animals, 
274,  276,  278;  borders,  271-273; 
boundary  disputes,  272;  cacao,  11, 
12*,  278,  280,  290*.  291;  charcoal 
burning,  292-293;  cities,  285-293, 
see  also  names  of  cities;  coffee,  278; 
climate,  277,  284;  corn,  284;  earth- 
quakes, 270;  floods,  291;  hides,  291; 
homes,  291-293;  Indians,  273-276, 
285;  ivory,  280-283,  291;  lowlands 
of  the  coast,  277-278;  meaning  of 
word,  270;  Panama  hats,  291;  para- 
mos, 276;  people,  273,  281*;  plateau, 
283-288;  plowing  with  a  crooked 
stick,  289*;  population,  273;  prod- 
ucts, 291;  railroads,  285-288;  rain- 
fall, 276,  278,  291;  rice,  278,  291; 
Size,  271-272;  Straw  (planta  de  To- 
guilla),  279;  only  seaport  of,  288; 
sugar,  278,  291 ;  sugar  cane,  harvest- 
ing on  a  great  plantation,  292*; 
tobacco,  278;  volcanoes,  270-271, 
285;  water  power,  286;  white  people 
of,  273. 

Eels,  333. 

El  Dorado,  legend  of,  2-4,  267. 

El  Gran  Chaco,  see  Gran  Chaco. 

El  Morro,  112. 

Essequibo  River  (River  of  Stones), 
349-350,  351. 

European  possessions,  342. 

Explorers,  Agassiz,  Louis,  268; 
Church,  268;  Con  way,  Sir  Martin, 
157;  Crevaux,  178,  268;  Farrabee, 
269;  Germans,  202;  Gibbon,  268; 
Herndon,  268;  Hojeda,  340;  Hum- 
boldt,  253,  268;  Ibaretta,  179; 
Keller,  268;  Lange,  Gunnar,  180; 
Markham,  Sir  Clements,  268;  Pages, 
179;  Rondon,  269;  Roosevelt,  269; 
Thouar,  179;  Vespucius,  229,  340; 
Wallace,  268. 

Famatina  Mountains,  57. 


Farming,  159*;  Argentine,  38*,  42- 
43*;  Bolivia,  135-136;  Brazil,  226, 
227;  Ecuador,  289*;  Inca  Empire, 
165;  Peru,  4*;  Uruguay,  194,  195, 
196. 

Farrabee,  269. 

Feast  day  for  a  river,  92. 

Fishermen,  a  declining  tribe  of,  143- 
145. 

Flamingo,  44,  332. 

Floods,  Amazon,  241;  Argentine,  42, 
70;  Chile,  127;  Colombia,  305; 
Ecuador,  291;  Paraguay,  187;  Peru, 
92;  Venezuela,  326. 

Flora  of  South  America,  vegetation 
map  between  pp.  316  and  317*. 

Forests,  of  the  Amazon  Valley,  242- 
245;  Argentine,  70;  Brazil,  227; 
Chile,  80,  81,  86;  Colombia,  308;  of 
the  Gran  Chaco,  176-177;  Guiana, 
351-352;  Paraguay,  189;  Patagonia, 
27;  Peru,  86,  106;  quebracho,  176; 
rubber,  251-253;  of  .South  America, 
vegetation  map  between  pp.  316 
and  317*;  Tierra  del  Fuego,  17; 
tropical,  on  the  banks  of  a  tributary 
of  the  Amazon,  240*;  Venezuela, 
323,  334-336. 

Fox,  276. 

Fray  Bentos,  194. 

French  Guiana,  342;  cacao,  345; 
cities,  353-354;  coffee,  345;  convicts 
in,  on  way  to  work,  343*;  fruit,  344; 
penal  station,  342;  population,  343; 
rice,  344;  sugar,  344,  345. 

Frias,  129. 

Fruit,  Argentine,  57;  British  Guiana, 
344,  345;  Dutch  Guiana,  344,  345; 
French  Guiana,  344;  Venezuela,  329. 

Funza  (Bogota)  River,  311. 

Gallegos,  28. 

Gallegos  River,  at  low  tide,  28*. 

Gamelote,  325. 

Gauchos  (cowboys),  6,  47,  181*,  194. 

Georgetown,  352-353. 

Germans,  203,  211,  341. 

Gibbon,  268. 

Glaciers,  15. 

Goats,  flock  of,  at  Payta,  Peru,  95*; 

herds  of  the  Piura  Valley,  95. 
Gold,  Argentine,  56;  Brazil,  225. 
Gorgas,  Colonel,  289. 
Goyaz,  71,  211,  234,  269. 
Gran  Chaco,  empty  spaces  of,  176; 

plains  of,  176-184;    rivers  of,  177. 
Grazing,  Argentine,  36,  36*.  41,  46*, 

47*,  52,  60-61,  71;  Bolivia,  139-140, 

163;   Brazil,   212,   227;   Chile,   79; 

Colombia,    308;   Patagonia,    29-30, 

31,  32;  Peru,  139-140, 163;  Uruguay, 

194;  Venezuela,  322. 
Guadeloupe,  312. 
Guauaco,  16,  22-24,  29,  30,  45,  142- 

143. 

Guaqui,  109,  145. 
Guaviare  River,  300. 


THE   INDEX 


xvil 


Guayamini,  corral  at,  36*. 

Guayaquil,  90,  162,  271,  279,  285, 
288-291;  firemen,  volunteer,  ready  to 
run  with  engine,  Cathedral  Square, 
287*;  loading  cacao  at,  typical 
harbor  scene,  290*;  part  of  Malecon, 
showing  the  river  front,  288*;  street 
in,  286*. 

Guayaquil,  Gulf  of,  277. 

Guayas  River,  277,  288,  291. 

Guianas,  269,  342-354;  animals,  346, 
348;  cities,  352-354;  climate,  342; 
cotton,  345;  courida  bush,  343; 
diamonds,  344;  dikes,  343-345; 
forests,  351-352;  fruit,  344;  Indians, 
348;  mangroves,  343;  mountains, 
345-346;  negroes,  350-351;  rainfall, 
345,  352;  rice,  344,  345;  river  names, 
348-350;  rubber,  344;  savannas, 
345-346;  sugar,  344,  345;  swamps 
and  dikes,  343-345;  wars,  350; 
water  falls,  346. 

Guiriri,  333. 

Herndon,  268. 

Heron,  44,  332,  333,  347. 

Hojeda,  340. 

Homes,  Argentine,  60;  Bolivia,  128, 
136,  153,  160,  250*;  Colombia, 
306;  Ecuador,  291-293;  Indian,  26, 
202,  248;  Paraguay,  190,  191;  Peru, 
110*;  -rubber  gatherer's,  on  the 
Upper  Amazon,  258*;  Venezuela, 
319,  327,  335*.  341. 

Honda  Rapids,  302. 

Horses,  Argentine,  52;  Brazil,  199; 
Chile,  73;  Ecuador,  278;  Venezuela, 
325,  329. 

Huasco  Lake  Basin,  148*. 

Huayna  Potosi,  157. 

Huaynacotas,  in  the  Cotahuasi  Val- 
ley, looking  across  the  terraced 
slopes  at,  135*. 

Humboldt,  253,  268,  323;  dream  of 
great  cities  on  the  Amazon,  253- 
254. 

Hurricanes,  207. 

Ibarctta,  179. 
Ibicuy  River,  66. 

Ibis,  44,  332,  347. 

Iguassu  Falls,  189. 

Iguassu  River,  65,  189. 

Illimani,  157. 

Inca  Empire,  boundaries,  172-173; 
civilization,  161-163;crops,  166-167; 
Cuzco,  ancient  capital  of,  163,  164*, 
170-171;  forts,  171*,  172*;  irrigation 
in,  164;  people  of,  161;  road  building 
in,  171;  Spaniards  take  possession 
of,  175;  taxes,  166-167. 

Inca  kings,  163-165;  agents,  165; 
and  people,  161-175;  palaces  and 
temples,  162*,  169-172. 

Inca  religion,  167-169,  173-174. 

Indians,  29,  128,  131,  143,  188,  190, 
197;  of  Amazon  Basin,  245-253;  and 


canoe  on  Rio  Chapare,  243*;  of  the 
Andean  plateau  harvesting  potatoes, 
159*;  Araucanians,  173;  Bakairi, 
202;  blanket  weaving  among  the 
plateau,  145*;  Bolivia,  243*;  Brazil, 
202,  215;  Carajas,  202;  Caribs 
(Caraios),  323;  Colombia,  305-308; 
Ecuador,  273-276,  285;  of  El  Gran 
Chaco,  176-184;  Guiana,  348;  Inca 
Empire,  161-175;  Mura,  247-248; 
Onas,  16-18;  pampa,  47-48;  Quitos, 
173;  shooting  fish  with  bow  and 
arrow  from  canoe  on  the  Rio  Chapare, 
249*;  as  slaves,  251-253,  254,  256; 
Tehuelches,  21-27;  Tobas,  179,  183- 
184;  one  of  the  Uros  making  a  canoe, 
146*;  Venezuela,  322,  338;  Warraus, 
322;  Yaghans,  14-16;  Yuracare,  248- 
251,  poling  canoe  upstream  in  the 
Amazon  Basin,  242*;  Yurunas,  202; 
Zaparo,  274. 

Iodine,  117. 

Iquique,  113,  119-121,  124;  fleet  of 
ships  from  many  countries  at  the 
port  of,  loading  nitrate  of  soda, 
120*;  harbor  of,  117*. 

Iquitos,  260,  261,  262;  at  head  of 
steamer  navigation  on  the  Amazon, 
262*. 

Iron,  Argentine,  56;  Brazil,  225,  226. 

Irrigation,  Bolivia,  133-134,  136; 
Brazil,  208;  Chile,  102*;  among  the 
Incas,  164;  Peru,  4*,  99*,  99-101, 
100*,  101*.  136. 

Ivory,  Ecuador,  280-283,  291. 

Jaguar,  274,  334. 

Javary  River,  village  on,  254*. 

Juliaca,  110. 

Junin  de  los  Andes,  32,  34. 

Juntas  Valley,  136,  246. 

Kaieteur  Falls,  346. 
Keller,  268. 

La  Guaira,  5,  316,  317,  318. 
Laguna  de  Guatayoc,  60. 
Laguna  del  Portezuelo,  59. 
Lake  Nahuel   Huapi,   30,   31*.   32; 

district  of,  34. 
La  Mesa,  310. 
Laiige,  (in n  nar,  180. 
La   Paz,    108,    145,    146,    149,    152- 

156,    175;  market  scene  in,    154*; 

moving  day  in,  143*;  view  of,  156*. 
La  Plata  estuary,  3,  63,  64,  197. 
La  Plata  River,  42,  47,  65,  196. 
La  Rioja,  56. 
Latacunga,  285. 
Lauricocha,  Lake,  242. 
Ledesma,  sugar  works,  178*. 
Lelejo,  30. 
Lima,  105-108,  175;  fertile  irrigated 

garden  farms  near,  4*;  general  view 

near,  106*. 
Lion,  mountain,  276. 


xviii   SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


Llamas,  Argentine,  60,  61;  Bolivia, 
134,  139,  140;  caravan  of,  at 
Challapata,  142*;  Peru,  139,  140. 

Llaneros,  325. 

Llanos,  of  Venezuela,  314-341;  animal 
life  of  the,  332-334;  cattle  driving  in 
the  northern,  331-332;  seaport  in 
the,  328-330. 

Los  Repollos,  31. 

Lota,  82. 

Madeira  River,  239,  240,  259; 
cataracts  of,  264;  falls  of  the,  259*, 
265*. 

Madeira-Mamore  Railroad,  260*. 

Magdalena  delta,  311. 

Magdalena  River,  300,  301-305,  308, 
311;  canoe  loaded  with  bananas  on 
the,  337*;  group  of  native  washer- 
women, near  Barranquilla  on  the, 
295*;  La  Gloria  on  the,  306*;  river 
steamer  on,  304*;  scene  on  the  lower, 
301*;  wood  station  on,  305*. 

Magellan,  Strait  of,  18,  19,  27,  80, 
81. 

Mahogany,  Brazil,  228;  Venezuela, 
335 

Mamore  River,  183. 

Manaos,  234,  254-255,  258,  260; 
general  view  of  the  port  of,  255*; 
market  of,  256*. 

Manatee,  333. 

Mangroves,  Guiana,  343;  Venezuela, 
323. 

Manioc,  190,  266. 

Maracaibo,  341. 

Maracaibo,  Lake,  339,  340. 

Maripa,  337. 

Markham,  Sir  Clements,  268. 

Matari,  247. 

Matilla,  oasis  of,  121,  124,  126, 126*. 

Matto  Grosso,  70,  71,  211,  216,  269. 

Mendoza,  54. 

Minas  Geraes,  224,  225,  226,  227. 

Minerals,  Argentine,  56-58;  Bolivia, 
110,  128,  130,  134;  Brazil,  199, 
224-227;  Chile,  82-83;  Peru,  107, 
108,  110,  131*. 

Mollendo,  87,  108,  110,  111. 

Mompos,  305. 

Money,  Bolivian  ten-cent  piece,  141*. 

Monkeys,  274,  334. 

Montevideo,  195,  196-197. 

Mountains,  Andes,  3,  6,  29-30,  37, 
38,  55,  75,  85,  88*,  137*.  147*.  148*. 
239,  246*.  297,  298,  300,  308;  of 
the  Brazil  coast,  204-205;  Cerro 
Munchique,  299;  Chimborazo,  162, 
271,  271*;  Corcovado,  233;  Cordil- 
lera de  Choco,  299;  Cordilleras, 
156-160,  298;  Cotopaxi,  270-271; 
Famatina,  57;  Guadeloupe,  312; 
Huayna  Potosi,  157;  Illimani,  157; 
Moncerrate,  312;  Pao  de  Assucar 
(Sugar-loaf),  233;  Pichincha,  285; 
Roraima,  346;  San  Ruiz,  312;  Serra 
Pacaraima,  338;  Serra  Parima,  338; 


Sierra    Nevada    de    Merida,    320; 

Sierra  Nevada  de  Santa  Marta,  299, 

308;  Sorata,  157;  Tolima,  312. 
Mules,  Brazil,   199,  227;  Venezuela, 

329. 
Mura  Indians,  247-248. 

Nahuel  Huapi,  Lake,  30,  31*.  32; 

district,  34. 
Napo  Valley,  wild  tribes  of  the,  274- 

275. 
Negro  River,  27,  30,  34,  37,  239,  252, 

254. 
Negroes     of     the     hot     lowlands, 

305-306;  see  also  Black  Race. 
Neiva  River,  302. 
Neuquen,  30. 
Nevados  de  Araca,  130. 
Nickel,  Argentine,  56. 
Nickerie,  344. 
Nitrate  of  soda,   11,  111,  114-122; 

ready  for  transportation,  116*;  ships 

from    many    countries    at    port    of 

Iquique,  loading,  120*. 
Nitrate  ports,    119-122;  fields  and, 

Novitai  306. 
Nutrias,  330. 

Oases,  Mat  ilia,  121,  124,  126,  126*; 

Soncor,  115*;  Tarapaca,  124-127. 
Oran,  178. 

Oranges,  Paraguay,  185-186. 
Orinoco,    basin,    296;    delta,    321*. 

322-327,  339;  lowlands,  6. 
Orinoco  River,  297,  320,  321,  322- 

324,  326-327,  328,  330,  333,  339, 

343. 

Oruro,  155. 

Ostrich  hunting,  22-24. 
Otter,  333. 

Pages,  179. 

Paguei  River,  crossing  the,  329*. 

Paillara,  333. 

Palms,  213,  334. 

Pampas,  37-48;  animals,  45-46;  birds 
and  insects,  44-45;  farming,  42; 
gauchos,  46-47;  grasses,  41;  Indians, 
47-48;  mirage  and  cloud  scenery, 
39-41;  plowing,  38*;  prairie  dog, 
43-44;  railroad,  52*;  rainfall,  42, 
vegetation  map  of  South  America, 
between  pp.  316  and  317*;  winds, 
41-42. 

Panama  Canal,  103. 

Panama  hat,  279,  291. 

Pao  de  Assucar  (Sugar-loaf),  233, 
233*. 

Para  (Belem),  10,  258,  265-267;  boat 
landing,  261*;  municipal  theater, 
266*. 

Paraguay,  9,  185-191,  192,  215,  216; 
cattle,  191;  cities,  188*.  191,  see 
also  names  of  cities;  climate,  187-188; 
floods,  187;  forests,  189;  Gran  Chaco, 
176-184;  homes,  190,  191;  oranges, 


THE   INDEX 


xix 


185-186;  people,  190-191;  physical 
features,  187-188;  population,  187; 
tea,  185;  woman  of,  smoking,  190*. 

Paraguay  River,  37,  70,  177,  188- 
189. 

Paramaribo,  353,  354;  view  of,  the 
capital  of  Dutch  Guiana,  353*. 

Paramos,  276,  299-300;  of  Andes, 
vegetation  map,  between  pp.  316  and 
317*. 

Parana,  city,  68,  bird's-eye  view  of, 
68*;  state,  216. 

Parana  River,  37,  64,  65,  70,  189; 
dredging  a  channel,  67*;  falls  of, 
189;  grasslands  of  the  valley  of  the, 
70-72;  scene  on,  65*. 

Patagonia,  11,  21-34,  48,  56;  animals, 
28,  29;  climate,  33;  forests,  27; 
grazing,  30,  31,  32;  meaning  of 
word,  21;  "No  Man's  Land,"  21; 
railways,  34;  rainfall,  28;  shingle 
plain,  28-29;  surface,  27-28;  Welsh 
settlers,  31-34;  western,  30-31. 

Patia  River,  300. 

Payta,  84,  91-92,  93,  279;  British 
steamer  with  Chinese  rice  at,  91*; 
flock  of  goats  and  shepherds  at,  95*; 
stream  channel  used  as  a  street  in, 
94*. 

Peccary,  334,  346. 

People,  see  Races  of  Man. 

Pernambuco  (Recife),  harbor  of,  236; 
inner  harbor  of,  208*;  ox  cart  in, 
206*;  shipping  at  port  of,  207*. 

Peru,  3,  5,  9,  11,  192,  209,  225,  263, 
279;  animals,  95,  95*.  134,  139, 
140-143;  barley,  155;  borax,  111; 
boundary  disputes,  73,  110-112; 
cactus,  150;  central  coast  region, 
100;  cities,  91-93,  96-99,  104-110, 
see  also  names  of  cities;  climate, 
86-87,  90,  163;  coastal  desert,  84- 
127;  cotton,  5*,  11,  92,  94;  earth- 
quake, 122-124;  farming,  135-136; 
fishing,  143-145;  floods,  92;  forests, 
86,  106;  fuel,  149-152;  grazing, 
139-140,  163;  highland  dwellers, 
128-160;  home  in  western,  110*; 
hunting,  142;  Incas,  161-175;  irriga- 
tion, 4*.  99*.  99-101,  100*,  101*, 
136;  Mecca  of,  105;  minerals,  107, 
108, 110, 131*;  Nile  of  Northern,  92; 
northern  coast  region,  99*;  potatoes, 
155,  166*;  products,  101-102,  155; 
railways,  107-110;  rainfall,  93-94, 
127;  rice,  92,  103;  southern  coast 
region,  101*;  sugar,  11,  92,  95; 
terraced  alluvial  fans  of  the  plateau 
of,  134-136;  trade  of  the  coast  valleys 
of,  101-103;  wool,  142,  144*.  155. 

Pica,  121,  125. 

Pirhincha,  285. 

Pilroinayo  River,  177,  178-181. 

Pisagua,  113,  119,  122. 

Piura,  92;  rainfall,  93;  rice,  103. 

Piura  River,  92;  goat  herds  of  the 
valley  of  the,  95. 


Plantations,   coffee,   210*.   220-221; 

sugar,  344,  345*. 
Poopo,  Lake,  145. 
Population  of  South  America, 

density  of,  facing  p.  316*,  see  also 

Races  of  Man. 
Port  Desire,  28. 
Port  San  Julian,  28. 
Porto  Madryn,  34. 
Porto  Velho,  240,  259,  260*. 
Portuguese,  6,   192,  203,  211,  353. 
Potaro  River,  346. 
Potatoes,   159*;   Bolivia,   155;   Peru, 

155,  166*;  Venezuela,  337. 
Potosi,  129,  132*. 
Puma,  274,  334. 
Puna  de  Atacama,  59. 
Puno,  109,  110,  145;  port  of ,  147*. 
Punta   Arenas,    19-20;   part   of   the 

town  of,  18*;  position  of,  in  regard 

to  ocean  trade  routes,  19. 

Quebracho,  176,  182*. 

Quito,  162,  285;  city  of  the  equator, 
283*;  9ld  Spanish  church,  -  La 
Compania,  in,  272*;  street  in,  284*. 

Races  of  man,  South  America,  facing 
p.  317*. 

Railroads,  Argentine,  52*.  53-56; 
Bolivia,  85*;  Brazil,  201*,  217,  218; 
Chile,  10*.  113*.  122;  Patagonia,  34; 
Peru,  107-110;  of  South  America, 
political  map  between  pp.  8  and  9*; 
of  Southern  South  America,  facing 
p.  35*;  Venezuela,  317-318. 

Rainfall  of  South  America,  mean 
annual,  facing  p.  8*;  mean  January, 
facing  p.  202*;  mean  July,  facing  p. 
203*. 

Ranch  life  in  Venezuela,  330. 

Rawson,  34. 

Recife,  see  Pernambuco. 

Religion.  Brazil  Indians.  203;  Catholic 
175;  Chile,  125-126;  Incas,  167-169, 
173-174;  Indian,  125;  Peru,  125- 
126. 

Reptiles,  334. 

Rhea,  see  ostrich. 

Riberalta,  260,  264. 

Rice,  in  Brazil,  212,  214-215;  British 
Guiana,  344;  Dutch  Guiana,  344; 
Ecuador,  278,  291;  French  Guiana, 
344;  Gran  Chaco,  176;  Guiana,  344, 
345;  Peru,  92,  103;  Venezuela,  337, 
338. 

Rimac  Valley,  107. 

Rio  Ariguani,  308. 

Riobamba,  285;  up-country  hospital- 
ity among  the  natives  in,  281*. 

Rio  Chapare,  see  Chapare  River. 

Rio  Chubut,  see  Chubut  River. 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  206,  210,  219,  226, 
230-235;  Avenida  Central,  a  street 
in,  232*;  Botafogo,  231*.  233;  city 
and  harbor,  view  of,  233*;  harbor, 


XX        SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER ' 


234-235;  Monroe  Palace,  234*; 
population,  234. 

Elo  de  la  Plata,  see  La  Plata  River. 

Rio  Gallegos,  see  Gallegos  River. 

Rio  Grande,  183. 

Rio  Negro,  see  Negro  River. 

Rio  Theodoro,  269. 

"River  of  Doubt,"  269. 

Rivers,  Amazon,  3,  6,  84,  206,  237- 
242,  238*.  241*,  242*,  264,  268- 
269,  297;  Apure,  328,  328*,  329, 
330,  331;  Atrato,  300;  Babahoyo, 
277*;  Bermejo,  177,  178;  Bogota, 
311;  Bravo,  65;  Canuma,  264; 
Catatumbo,  339;  Cauca,  300,  305; 
Caura,  336-338;  Cesar,  301,  308; 
Chapare,  248,  249*;  Chubut,  30,  32, 
33;  Corentyn,  344;  Demarara  353; 
Desaguadero,  144,  145,  146*;  Esse- 
quibo  (River  of  Stones),  349-350, 
351;  Funza,  311;  Gallegos,  28*;  of 
the  Gran  Chaco,  177;  Guaviare,  300; 
Guayas,  277,  288,  291;  Ibicuy,  .66; 
Iguassu,  65,  189;  Javary,  254*;  La 
Plata,  42,  47,  65,  196;  Madeira,  239, 
240,  259,  259*;  Magdalena,  295*, 
300,  301-305,  304*.  305*.  306*, 
308,  311,  337*;  Mamore,  183; 
Negro,  27,  30,  34,  37,  239,  254; 
Neiva,  302;  Orinoco,  297,  320,  321, 
322-324,  326-327,  328,  330,  333, 
339,  343;  Paguei,  329*;  Paraguay, 
37,  70,  177,  188-189;  Parana,  37, 
64,  65*,  67*,  70,  189;  Patia,  300; 
Pilcomayo,  177,  178-181;  Potaro, 
346;  Piura,  92;  Rio  Ariguani,  308; 
Rio  Grande,  183;  Salado,  37;  San 
Juan,  306;  Surinam,  354;  Tapajos, 
203,  241*,  264;  Theodoro,  269; 
Tocantins,  202,  264;  Tortuga,  333; 
Xingu,  202-203,  264-  Yapacani, 
183;  Zulia,  339. 

Roca,  General,  48.       v 

Rondon,  Colonel,  269. 

Roosevelt,  269. 

Roraima,  346. 

Rosario,  66-68. 

Royal  Cordillera,  see  Cordillera  Real. 

Rubber,  257*,  258*;  in  Amazonia, 
251-253,  255-269;  Bolivia,  183, 
200;  Brazil,  199;  commerce,  259- 
269;  Ecuador,  272;  Guiana,  344; 
Venezuela,  335. 

Sacsahuaman,  Fort,  170,  171*. 

Salado  River,  37. 

Salaverry,  port  of,  96*. 

Salt,  Amazon  Valley,  264;  Argen- 
tine, 37,  59;  Bolivia,  138*.  146-148, 
148*.  264;  Brazil,  230;  Chile,  11*; 
Colombia,  297-298. 

San  Antonio,  258,  260. 

San  Fernando,  331. 

San  Juan  River,  306. 

San  Martin  de  los  Andes,  32,  34. 

San  Nicolas,  68. 

San  Pedro,  68. 


San  Ruiz,  312. 

Santa  Cruz  de  la  Sierra,  181-183. 

Santa  Fe,  68;  view  of  an  irrigated 
garden  in  the  Loa  Valley,  102*. 

Santa  Marta,  311. 

Santa  Rosa,  264;  one  of  the  eastern 
towns  at  the  headwaters  of  a  plains 
stream,  252*. 

Santarem,  241. 

Santos,  10,  219;  central  market  of, 
219*;  coffee,  loading  for  the  U.  S. 
market  at,  224*;  coffee  warehouse  at, 
223*. 

Sao  Francisco  Valley,  207. 

Sao  Paulo,  215,  219,  220;  drying 
coffee  in,  222*. 

Sao  Roque,  Cape,  205,  207,  208. 

Sao  Salvador,  see  Bahia. 

Sao  Thome,  280. 

Sarsaparilla,  335. 

Sa vanilla,  311. 

Savannas  of  South  America,  vege- 
tation map  between  pp.  316  and 
317*. 

Serra  Pacaraima,  338. 

Serra  Parima,  338. 

Sheep,  Argentine,  46,  52,  60*; 
Bolivia,  134,  139;  Brazil,  227; 
Patagonia,  28;  Peru,  134,  139. 

Shepherd,  highland,  139-140. 

Sierra  Nevada  de  Merida,  320. 

Sierra  Nevada  de  Santa  Marta,  299, 
308. 

Silver,  Argentine,  56;  Bolivia,  134; 
Brazil,  225;  Peru,  108,  131*. 

Slaves,  Indian,  251-253,  254,  256; 
negro,  223. 

Soda,  see  Nitrate  of  Soda. 

Soledad,  328. 

Soncor,  oasis  of,  115*. 

Sorata,  157. 

South  America,  123;  cities,  political 
map,  between  pp.  8  and  9*,  see  also 
names  of  cities;  climate,  mild  belts, 
facing  p.  9*;  deserts,  vegetation  map 
between  pp.  316  and  317*;  exports, 
261,  278;  flora,  vegetation  map 
between  pp.  316  and  317*;  forests, 
vegetation  map  between  pp.  316  and 
317*;  harbors  and  products,  9-13; 
hunting  ground  of,  314-316;  mild 
belts,  facing  p.  9*;  missionaries,  3; 
pampas,  vegetation  map  between  pp. 
316  and  317*;  people  of,  and  the 
land  they  conquered,  1-13;  political 
map,  between  pp.  8  and  9*;  popula- 
tion, 192-193;  population,  density  of, 
facing  p.  316*;  races  of  man,  facing 
p.  317*;  railroads,  political  map 
between  pp.  8  and  9*;  rainfall,  mean 
annual,  facing  p.  8*;  rainfall,  mean 
January,  facing  p.  202*;  rainfall, 
mean  July,  facing  p.  203*;  relief  map, 
between  pp.  202  and  203*;  savanna, 
vegetation  map  between  pp.  316  and 
317*;  soil,  4;  Southern,  facing  p.  35*; 
temperature,  mean  January,  facing 


THE   INDEX 


xxi 


p.    124*;   temperature,   mean  July, 
facing    p.     125*;    vegetation    map 
between  pp.  316  and  317*;  wars  of 
emancipation,  4-6. 
Southern  South  America,  facing  p. 

Southernmost  city  in  the  world,  18. 

Spaniards,  4-5,  6,  7,  8,  47,  64,  76, 
104,  161,  175,  192,  203,  310,  340, 
341,  353. 

Spoonbill,  44,  332. 

Squatters,  see  Argentine. 

Steamship  routes,  102-103,  political 
map  between  pp.  8  and  9*. 

Straw  (planta  de  Toquilla),  279. 

Straw  boat  on  the  ocean,  103. 

Sucre,  141. 

Sugar,  Argentine,  10;  Brazil,  212, 
213,  227,  229;  British  Guiana,  344, 
345*.  353;  Dutch  Guiana,  344; 
Ecuador,  278,  291,  292*;  French 
Guiana,  344,  345;  Guiana,  344, 
345;  Peru,  11,  92,  95;  Venezuela, 
318,  329,  337;  works  at  Ledesma, 
178*. 

Sugar-loaf,  see  Pao  de  Assucar. 

Sun  worship,  167-169. 

Surinam  River,  354. 

Tacaloa,  305. 

Tacna,  province,  110,  111;  town,  110. 

Taltal,  98,  112,  113;  hauling  water  at, 

97*. 

Tapajos  River,  203,  241*.  264. 
Tapir,  276,  334,  346;  and  young,  347*. 
Tarapaca,  111. 
Tarapaca    Desert,    caravan   starting 

on  a  journey  across,  87*;  oases,  124- 

127;  prosperous  oasis  of  Matilla  in, 

126*. 

Tea,   Brazil,  215-217;  Paraguay,  185. 
Tehuelches,  21-27,  23*.  25*.  26*. 
Temblador,  337. 
Temperature    of    South    America, 

mean  January,  facing  p.  124*;  mean 

July,  facing  p.  125*. 
Tenerife,  305. 

Tequendama,  Falls  of,  311. 
Thouar,  179. 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  16-18;  climate,  17; 

forests,  17. 
Titicaca,     Lake,     84,     144,     147*; 

steamers  of,  145-146. 
Tobacco,  10,  227,  266,  278. 
Tocantins  River,  202,  264. 
Tocantins,  village  of,  267. 
Tocopllla,  113,  122. 
"  Toldo  "  or  tent,  home  of  a  Tehuelche 

family,  26*. 
Tolima,  312. 
Tonka  beans,  337. 
Tortuga  River,  333. 
Transportation,  on  the  Amazon,  258, 

261,  262;  in  the  Argentine,  58-59; 

bullock  wagons,  53-54;  llama,  140- 

141,  142*;  mule  carts,  179*;  pack 


train,  58*.  303*;  water,  303,  304*; 

see  also  railroads. 
Trelew,  34. 
Trinidad,  260,  264. 
Tucotuco,  30. 
Tucuman,  54. 
Turtles,  266-267,  268*.  274,  333. 

Uitarte,  picking  cotton  with  Chinese 
labor  on  irrigated  land  at  foot  of 
Andes,  5*. 

Uruguay,  71,  192-198,  215,  216; 
area,  193;  cities,  194-197;  climate, 
193;  farming,  194,  195,  196;  grazing, 
194;  products,  194;  size,  193;  wars, 
197-198;  wool,  194. 

Valencia,  5,  331. 

Valley  of  the  16th  of  October,  31- 

Valparaiso,  77,  84,  124;  meaning  of 
word,  77;  monument  to  Prat  y 
Bahia  in,  78*. 

Vegetation  map  of  South  America, 
between  pp.  316  and  317*. 

Venezuela,  3,  5,  294,  314-341; 
animals,  325,  329,  330,  331,  332- 
334;  bananas,  337;  cacao,  329; 
cattle  on  their  way  to  market, 
llanos  of,  331*;  cedar,  335;  cinchona, 
335;  cities,  316-319,  328,  see  also 
names  of  cities;  coastal  features,  339; 
coffee,  329;  delta  plains  of  the 
Orinoco  in,  322-324;  floods,  326; 
forests,  334-336;  fruit,  329;  govern- 
ment, 314-316;  grasslands,  324-325; 
grazing,  322;  harbors,  339;  homes, 
327,  335*,  341;  hunting  ground  of 
South  America,  314-316;  Indians, 
322,  338;  "little  Venice"  of,  339- 
341;  llanos,  314-341,  324-325,  329, 

330,  331-334;     mahogany,     335; 
mangroves,  323,  339;  marshes,  322; 
mountains,     314-341;    outline    of, 
319-320;  palms,  334;  people,  336- 
339;  plains,  320-325;  potatoes,  337; 
prairie  fires  of  the  grasslands,  330- 
331;    railroads,    317-318;    rainfall, 

331,  332,  340;  ranch  life,  330,  335*; 
rice,  337,  338;  rivers,  326-327,  327*. 
329,   336-338;   rubber,  335;  sarsa- 
parilla,  335;  scenery,  316-319,  324- 
325;  sugar,   318,   329,   337;   tonka 
beans,  337;  towns,  316-319;  wars, 
315;  western,  on  the  road  to  Barinas, 
320*. 

Venezuela,  Gulf  of,  340. 

Vespucius,  Americus,  229,  340. 

Vicuna,  45,  142,  143. 

Villa  Argentina,  56. 

Villa  Bella,  264. 

Villa  Constitucion,  68. 

Villa  del  Pllar,  191. 

Villa  Rica,  191. 

Vineyards,  79,  80*. 

Vizcacha,  29,  43-44,  148. 

Volcanoes,  270,  285,  299,  312. 


xxii     SOUTH  AMERICA:     A  GEOGRAPHY  READER 


Wallace,  268. 

Wars,  Chile  and  Peru,  73,  110,  112; 

Colombia,  3 12-3 13;  of  Emancipation, 

4-6;    Guiana,    350;    Inca,    172-173; 

Uruguay,  197-198;  Venezuela,  315. 
Wax,  230. 
Welsh,  31-34. 
Wheat,  48 ;  croppers  at  work  in  one  of 

the   great   fields   of   the   Argentine 

Republic,  50*. 
White  race,    Races  of   Man,  facing 

p.  317*. 

Whymper,  270. 
Wine,  Brazil,  229;  Chile,  79,  80. 


Wool,  11,  33;  Bolivia,  142,  155;  Peru 
142,  144*,  155;  Uruguay,  194. 

Xingu  River,  264. 
Xingu  Valley,  202-203. 

Yaghans,  14-16. 

Yankees  of  South  America,  73-74. 
Yapacani  River,  183. 
Yellow  race,    Races  of  Man,  facing 
p.  317*. 

Zarate,  68. 
Zipaquira,  310.         ,. 
Zulia  River,  339.  ^ 


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